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Former All Black's take on Tuivasa-Sheck: 'Probably the best cross-code debut'
Much of the focus heading into the second round of the Super Rugby Pacific season lay on the debut appearance of former rugby league star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
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Tuivasa-Sheck was the most high-profile signing of the off-season with the 2018 Dally M Medal winner heading to the Blues where he’s linked up with other dangerous backs such as Beauden Barrett, Rieko Ioane and Caleb Clarke.
Although Tuivasa-Sheck hadn’t played union since his high school days, it’s fair to say that the hype surrounding the 28-year-old heading into the Blues’ opening match against the Hurricanes was through the roof.
Many in the know tried to temper expectations of the former Warriors and Panthers representative but after just one game of Super Rugby, it’s fair to suggest that Tuivasa-Sheck could have a massive future in the game.
Playing at inside centre, Tuivasa-Sheck finished the match with 11 carries, four beaten defenders and three offloads, and clocked up 50 metres will ball in hand. He also finished with 14 tackles to his name – the third-most of any player on the field.
While there were a few slip-ups here and there, including some loose play at the breakdown as well as one defensive misread in the final play of the match, it was an impressive debut from Tuivasa-Sheck.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod, former All Black James Parsons went so far as to suggest it was the most impressive cross-code debut of all time.
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“I would say it’s probably the best cross-code debut,” Parsons said. “If you think about Sonny [Bill Williams], he went to flanker first in Toulon and it took him a while to find his feet even when he came to the midfield here, and that was at NPC. Roger’s gone straight into Super Rugby.
“But I think it’s his ability of knowing the game, coming all the way through school. Yes there was a bit of a penalty where he didn’t release the ball but man, he just looked as good as those highlights when he was an 18-year-old kid, didn’t he? It was so impressive. I was kind of surprised. It was a real clear clinic except for one missed tackle, in my opinion.
“The power in his carry, his ability to always get between defenders and explode out the other side… And some of those carries off the kick-off, those are tough carries and he’s into it. I thought he was really good defensively. I know everyone’s going to look at that missed tackle and he probably just let Bailyn [Sullivan] get on the outside because of [Ben May’s] pass but he’s 14 tackles out of 17 in a tough area to defend.”
Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall was in general agreement and was especially impressed with how quickly Tuivasa-Sheck has adjusted to the XV-man code, given he wasn’t able to play any games for Auckland during the NPC.
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“If you’re thinking about it, he’s had two pre-season games and then he’s played the first game in Super Rugby in the weekend. I thought he was tremendous,” Hall said.
“Considering what you need to have as a 12 at this level. You can be classed as a battering ram, you can rarely do ball-runner and ball-carrier, which he did really well. You look at the fight through contact and that offload to Rieko early doors and then his footwork off kick-offs and even in general play as well, that left-foot step that we’ve seen so much in the Warriors and the Roosters, it’s really hard to defend.
“It’s just the subtle touches that I enjoyed seeing with Roger as well. There were a couple of times that he actually just squared up his man on the edge and then was able to fix a guy and then being able to give that ball away, which I think is a really good improvement from when you look at probably the first two pre-season games where he’s probably just tucked and carried … It just seemed like he was a triple threat and not [just] that go-forward carry ball, which I probably saw in the first two pre-season games.
“But really, really good debut and he’s only going to grow and get better the more time that he is playing.”
Both Hall and Parsons suggested that Tuivasa-Sheck would receive a call-up to the All Blacks this year with Parsons noting how he would be able to attract attention away from the nation’s various dangerous backs, thus creating more space to attack.
“With his passing game, his ability to inject himself through defenders and offload is gonna be [massive],” Parsons said. “That’s what Sonny was known for, his ability to do that. A couple of times on the weekend he made that look easy when that is not easy. And if you can get it to someone like Rieks in space, [with] that pace…
“He’s gonna attract defensive attention now so it may be harder but what that does is it creates opportunities elsewhere. He’s gonna have some challenges he goes through. He’s a little bit of an unknown at the moment but the more video footage people get in this game, it’ll become harder for him but that then means they’re fixated on someone else which creates space.”
Tuivasa-Sheck will likely once again wear No 12 when the Blues take on the Chiefs at Eden Park this weekend.
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
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