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'Rumours are getting louder': RTS linked with return to former NRL club

By Finn Morton
(Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)

All Blacks midfielder Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has been linked with a sensational return to the Sydney Roosters, according to NRL premiership winner Brian Fletcher.

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Tuivasa-Sheck will go down in history as one of the greatest New Zealanders to have ever starred in the 13-player game.

The sidestepping fullback won an NRL premiership with the Sydney Roosters in 2013, and later completed an incredible move across the ditch to the New Zealand Warriors.

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Tuivasa-Sheck was a shining light for the Warriors throughout some difficult campaigns; having become the first player in club history to win the Dally M medal in 2018.

But, like many New Zealanders, Tuivasa-Sheck dreamed of the black jersey.

Playing for the All Blacks is one of the greatest honour at New Zealander can achieve, and Tuivasa-Sheck realised that dream against Ireland in 2022.

But the 29-year-old has struggled to make his mark in rugby union.

Especially at international level, Tuivasa-Sheck has failed to live up to the hype and expectation that fans expected of him after his stunning code switch.

Late last year, rugby league insider The Mole indicated that Tuivasa-Sheck may return to the NRL with Wayne Bennett’s The Dolphins if he doesn’t make this year’s Rugby World Cup squad.

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Now, just over a month later, the superstar has been linked with a return to Bondi.

“The rumours I keep hearing is Roger (Tuivasa-Sheck) back to the Chooks. That’s what I keep hearing,” Fletcher said on SEN’s The Run Home with Joel and Fletch.

“When we cross over to our Kiwi friends, I’m going to ask them, because the rumours are getting louder and louder.

“I’m not geeing you up, the rumours are getting very, very strong.”

Many players have tried to jump codes, but not many have succeeded.

While there are obvious standouts including Israel Folau, Sonny Bill Williams and Lote Tuqiri, there are many who have struggled after making a move.

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“They all come back after doing to the dark side – and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck could be the next to make the transition back to rugby league,” The Mole wrote last year.

“The lies of Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuqiri, Mat Rogers and Sam Burgess all tried their hand at the 15-a-side game with varying degrees of success in recent years before returning to league.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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