RTS positional debate hots up
“I just love being on the field for this club. I’ll play wherever.”
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
If that was the only time Warriors fans will see Roger Tuivasa-Sheck wearing the No 1 jersey this NRL eason, then so be it.
The home team’s fullback was everywhere as they beat the Newcastle Knights 20-12 in Auckland on Sunday.
Not only did Tuivasa-Sheck make 29 runs for 283 metres – 103 of them post-contact – but he also came up trumps on defence.
Most notably when he batted down a pass that threatened to give the Knights a second try in quick succession within the final 10 minutes and potentially close the Warriors’ lead from 14 points to two.
“That was huge,” captain Tohu Harris said afterwards. “They threw everything at us and they obviously came up with a few opportunities, but in those moments, you've just got to find a way to stop them.
“I thought he played outstanding. Talking to him before, he said he felt like he just didn't stop running – and that's good. That’s what we needed from him.”
Prior to leaving the Warriors to play for the Blues and become an All Black in 2021, Tuivasa-Sheck had made a name for himself as one of the best fullbacks in the NRL, winning the Dally M Medal as the competition’s player of the year in 2018.
But since he agreed to return to the club last year, he and coach Andrew Webster have been focused on him playing at centre, with Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad having an outstanding campaign at fullback as the Warriors surged to the preliminary finals in 2023.
Nicoll-Klokstad is yet to play this season after suffering a hamstring injury in pre-season, but is due to return next Saturday when the Warriors travel to play the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which means Tuivasa-Sheck will move back to centre.
In Nicoll-Klokstad’s absence, Webster started second-year prospect Taine Tuaupiki at fullback in the first three rounds, but was forced to turn to Tuivasa-Sheck when Tuaupiki suffered a concussion in round three.
“Talking to Roger, it felt like he learned plenty tonight [Sunday],“Webster said. ”He feels the NRL is a different beast from when he left it. He hasn’t had a lot of reps at fullback – we've been concentrating on centre – so I was proud of him.“
“The things I knew Roger would be good at, he was good at,” Webster added. “Kick returns, carrying the ball in the middle the field – I think we ran a little play where he switched back on the inside – I knew Roger was going to be good at all that sort of stuff.”
It was after the Warriors’ 0-2 start that calls for Tuivasa-Sheck to be used at fullback in Nicoll-Klokstad’s absence grew their loudest, with former Kiwis captain Adam Blair leading the charge.
Speaking with Blair and his fellow Sky Sport panelists after the win over the Knights, Tuivasa-Sheck was asked where he would prefer to play and said: “I would like to play where Andrew Webster puts me. I’m a big team player. I just love being on the field for this club. I’ll play wherever.”
Webster was then asked if he was “getting tired of all these Roger questions,” heading into a week where the 30-year-old is set to make his 200th NRL appearance. “It's good noise,” he replied.
“We all know what he’s done in the game. I laugh about it. I make jokes about it. I’m not sick of it. It can keep coming. I'll hopefully be as resilient as the boys were[on Sunday].”