Once a Warrior, a warrior always
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck will reach a notable milestone at his hometown club today, reports Andrew Voerman.
The Warriors will have something extra to play for this week, as centre Roger Tuivasa-Sheck makes his 200th appearance in the NRL. Some 84 of those games were for the Sydney Roosters, the club with which he debuted in 2012 and won a title in 2013.
But the last 115 – and counting – were for the Warriors, based a short drive up Great South Rd in Auckland from the Otahuhu Leopards, the club he played for as a kid.
“Every single person in the club is so excited for him,” Warriors captain Tohu Harris said this week.
“For him to come back and do it here at the Warriors ... he probably could have had the pick of the clubs he wanted to go to and anyone would have taken him.
“But he’s got goals that he wants to achieve with the club, so to have those kinds of milestones, those special ones, here at the club, it’s given the team something extra to play for.
“We really want to make it a real special occasion for him and his family.”
One way to sum up Tuivasa-Sheck’s NRL career to date is with numbers.
In his 199 games so far, he has scored 59 tries and assisted another 62, while running 37,597 metres and making 111 line breaks.
But what makes him special are the moments like the one in the 34th minute of the Warriors’ win over the Knights at Mt Smart Stadium last Sunday.
Catching a kick on his own 10m line, Tuivasa-Sheck stepped off his left foot to sit Mat Croker on his arse, then stepped off his left again to send Jack Hetherington spinning in a circle, before bumping off an attempted tackle by Adam Elliott.
The Knights trio weren’t the first defenders to be embarrassed by the 30-year-old and they won’t be the last.
But while what Tuivasa-Sheck does to opposing teams is important, what’s more important is what he does for his own team, as outlined by Warriors coach Andrew Webster.
“The highlight reels – like how he steps everyone and beats them – are fantastic, but he’s such a team guy and how much he wants to win for this club is probably the most special part.”
What’s different about Tuivasa-Sheck’s second stint at the Warriors, even though it’s only four games old, is that he and his team-mates are now on the same page when it comes to some non-negotiables around effort.
He saw that while watching their run to the preliminary finals from afar last year, during his second season playing rugby union, and further convincing came during a cafe sitdown with Harris – who has similarly high standards, having joined the Warriors after a title-winning season at the Melbourne Storm – and Jazz
Tevaga. “I was pretty much selling the dream,” was how Tevaga described it this week.
“Everything that he and Tohu wanted when they first got here – it was pretty much just telling him that it is what he wanted.
“He was asking, should I come back? Is it worth his time? And I sold him the dream. I'm still waiting for my bonus from the club for that,” Tevaga added, tongue firmly in cheek.
Harris was Tuivasa-Sheck’s roommate during “the Covid stuff” – the three seasons the Warriors spent based in Australia while the New Zealand border was closed. “We had a lot of chats throughout then. He knew I wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything. I told him what I honestly thought and thankfully, it was positive enough for him to come back.”
What Tuivasa-Sheck heard from Harris was that “the arrival of Webby has really changed how we do things here”.
“The standards have lifted so much, and just the feel of the place – it’s positive and fun. It’s a space where you can be yourself – you don’t have to be something you’re not.
“That, along with the work ethic ‘been instilled, especially in the younger guys – that stuff was important to Roger … all the different things he wanted to see in the club, it’s happening, and that’s a big reason why he’s come [back].”
In his return to the Warriors, on a threeyear deal that will kept him in Penrose until the end of 2026, Tuivasa-Sheck has moved from fullback to left centre, showing a willingness to do whatever it takes to help the club win its first title.
As Webster put it: “Roger was like, ‘Yeah, I want to come here. I like the vision, I like where the place is going. If I’m going to play rugby league, I’m going to play at the Warriors, and I’m motivated to achieve something special’.’’
The NRL season might be young, but even though they dropped their first two matches, the Warriors are already looking like a team that has grown from last season, when they made an entirely unexpected run to to the final four.
They’ve no doubt been buoyed by the return of Tuivasa-Sheck, and will be inspired even further this weekend against the Rabbitohs, after watching what Tevaga called a “20-minute highlight reel” before training on Wednesday.
“Every player that has a milestone match, whether it’s 50 games, 100, whatever – you get a highlight reel,” Tevaga explained.
“I don’t have too many highlights, but he’s got a lot, as you can imagine. It’s pretty much a tribute.”
The best tribute Tuivasa-Sheck’s teammates can offer will be a win against the Rabbitohs today.
An even better one will be a win on the first Sunday in October.
“Roger was like, ‘Yeah, I want to come here. I like the vision, I like where the place is going. If I’m going to play rugby league, I’m going to play at the Warriors’.” Warriors coach Andrew Webster on Roger Tuivasa-Sheck