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Roger Tuivasa-Sheck responds to NRL return rumours

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s first season in the All Blacks has perhaps not gone quite the way the 29-year-old would have hoped.

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After making the switch to rugby union late last season, Tuivasa-Sheck was fast-tracked into the New Zealand national side following his first season of Super Rugby Pacific. Despite being a member of the squad since the July Test series, however, Tuivasa-Sheck has managed just two games in a black jersey, earning 10 minutes off the bench against Ireland and then a further 10 minutes as a replacement in NZ’s most recent win over Australia.

While Tuivasa-Sheck’s promotion to the All Blacks came quicker than many expected, his progression from the wider squad to the playing squad has been anything but.

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Somewhat unsurprisingly, rumours have now started to circulate that Tuivasa-Sheck might be weighing up a return to the 13-man game.

“The little whisper is that there is a contract on the table for Roger Tuivasa-Sheck back at the Roosters,” said John Kirwan on The Breakdown.

Tuivasa-Sheck previously spent four seasons with the Roosters in the NRL, and was named both Dally M Winger of the Year and Dally M Fullback of the Year during his time with the Syndey-based club. Tuivasa-Sheck made over 80 appearances for the Roosters before linking up with the Warriors, where he played a further six campaigns.

The man himself has shut down any suggestions that he’ll be looking for an early exit from rugby union, however, making a post on Instagram to reaffirm his intentions.

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“Hey team, hearing [rumours of] a return to Sydney Roosters & NRL,” Tuivasa-Sheck said. “As much as I enjoyed it there, I won’t be heading back. Signed sealed delivered (sic) till the end of 2023.”

David Havili, Quinn Tupaea and Jordie Barrett have all been preferred in the No 12 jersey over Tuivasa-Sheck throughout this year’s Test season. Even if the 29-year-old had been considering an early exit from his two-year contract, the recent injury to Tupaea – which will likely see him back on the field only shortly before next year’s Rugby World Cup – might have changed his mind.

The impending return from injury of Anton Lienert-Brown will make Tuivasa-Sheck’s challenge to break into the All Blacks match-day squad even more formidable, however – although it appears that a positional switch could also be on the cards.

Notably, Tuivasa-Sheck did not give any indication of what his plans are post-Rugby World Cup – but the same could be said for any player who’s contract runs until the end of 2023.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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