Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has rare opportunity to showcase his accelerated development

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is set to make his second appearance for the All Blacks this season, having been named on the bench for their Bledisloe Cup clash with the Wallabies.

Should the converted rugby league star take the field at Eden Park, the match will mark just his 17th professional game of union.

The 29-year-old spent a decade representing the Roosters and the Warriors before making the call last year to focus on the 15-man code and linking up with Auckland ahead of the NPC. Covid curtailed his reintroduction to the game, however, and it was only earlier this season that Tuivasa-Sheck finally ran out for his first competitive match of rugby union since starring for the Blues Under 18 side back in 2014.

11 appearances for the Blues later and Tuivasa-Sheck found himself rubbing shoulders with rugby royalty as part of the first All Blacks squad of the season.

One appearance of the bench during July has been Tuivasa-Sheck’s only taste of Test rugby action in the days since, however, with coach Ian Foster sending the work-in-progress back to Auckland to clock up some minutes throughout the All Blacks’ Rugby Championship campaign.

Now, Tuivasa-Sheck is set to put all the knowledge he’s picked up over the past months to use against the Wallabies on his home turf, with injuries to David Havili and Quinn Tupaea seeing Jordie Barrett shift from fullback into the No 12 jersey, and Tuivasa-Sheck joining the side on the bench.

With Blues teammate Rieko Ioane once again donning the No 13 jersey, there’s a very real chance that the two fleet-footed backs will partner up at some stage on Saturday evening – and Ioane believes that his ‘protege’ of sorts couldn’t be more prepared.

“Roger’s been awesome,” said Ioane. “He hasn’t had so many games for the ABs this year but in and around training, he’s learning as much as he can. He just wants to play and learn.

“The midfield’s a tricky area. Him getting games under his belt for Auckland and learning off the 12s we have in here is only going to accelerate that progression. I’m excited to see him go out there on Saturday, back at the Garden, the home stadium, so it’s going to be awesome.”

While the entirety of Tuivasa-Sheck’s brief career in union has been played at inside centre, Ioane’s comments around his own transition from the outside backs to centre would likely also apply to his Blues and All Blacks teammate.

“Probably the challenge that I found was the defence side of things,” he noted. “It took a couple of games to adjust to.”

Earlier this month, coach Foster noted that support work while on the offensive and the breakdown were Tuivasa-Sheck’s biggest work-ons and are undoubtedly two areas the 29-year-old has been focussing on during his brief stint with the Auckland NPC side.

“He’s a fast learner,” Foster said of the midfielder.

“His work from the attacking side, particularly getting involved around our forwards in the middle of the park is something that he hasn’t spent a lot of time on during Super Rugby so that’s been taking a little while.

“His instincts at the breakdown are probably the number one growth point for him and again, we’re seeing some really good strides in that space.

“Those are some aspects he can go away and work on in that space. Overall, really pleased with the growth but I guess now it’s just waiting for the opportunity.”

Saturday’s rematch following the All Blacks’ narrow 39-37 win in Melbourne last week now presents Tuivasa-Sheck with an opportunity to showcase how he’s been developing away from Foster’s watchful eye.