RTS relishes his duel with ‘Tommy Turbo’

For Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, the weekly battles with opposition fullbacks are always slightly personal.

Not in a spiteful way, that’s not the Warriors skipper’s style. He simply loves nothing more than challenging himself against the best in the NRL.

And on current form, individual matchups don’t get any more mouth-watering than tomorrow’s duel with Sea Eagles star fullback Tom Trbojevic.

While Tuivasa-Sheck’s inspirational performances have him first-equal on the Dally M leaderboard, Trbojevic has completely transformed the Manly attack since his return from injury.

Along with his own impressive stats – Trbojevic has three tries and four try assists in his last three starts – ‘Tommy Turbo’ has also elevated the play of halves Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran, with Manly enjoying three straight wins before last week’s gritty defeat to competition leaders Penrith.

Their winning streak began against the Warriors last month, when Trbojevic was still on the sidelines, after Cherry-Evans landed a last-gasp field goal.

Tuivasa-Sheck knows Manly will only be stronger with Trbojevic in the lineup, but he’s looking forward to measuring himself against the NSW and Australia representative.

‘‘It’s another opportunity for me to challenge one of the best players in our game, ‘Tommy Turbo’, so I’m going to try and do my best to out-play him,’’ Tuivasa-Sheck said.

‘While Tuivasa-Sheck and Trbojevic are crucial to each team’s chances, the dynamic duo will rarely be responsible for shutting one another down, given their position behind the defensive line.

That will fall to the respective forward packs, solid edge defence and a strong kick-chase.

Manly will be without key props Martin Taupau and Josh Aloiai, but Tuivasa-Sheck said they had enough strike power in the forwards to unleash Trbojevic and co if the Warriors fail to match their aggression.

With Chanel Harris-Tavita coming back into contention after recovering from injury, Tuivasa-Sheck gave little indication about the makeup of the halves, other than to say the playmaker trained well yesterday.

There’s been talk that rookie sensation Reece Walsh could move to the bench if HarrisTavita returns tomorrow, which may come as a surprise given how slick the Warriors looked with the ball in the first half during last week’s win over the Cowboys.