Auckland National Provincial Championship assistant coach Craig McGrath has been impressed with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck since he joined the club last week.
Tuivasa-Sheck, 28, joined the Auckland Blues last week after making the switch from rugby league, and McGrath says he can already tell he’ll “be successful” in the new code.
Joining SENZ Mornings, McGrath was asked how Tuivasa-Sheck was picking up the nuances of rugby union.
“Yeah, easy, we had our first training day yesterday,” McGrath said.
“The first thing that sticks out is obviously he is an ultimate professional.
“Really good, studious in his books, I actually had a meeting with him today at around 7 o’clock about requirements about his defence.
“Everything he learned about yesterday he was able to come back with that exact information and with a really good understanding of what’s required.
“He’s an ultimate professional, and I think that’s going to be really good for our younger group of players not just on the field but off the field it will be a great opportunity to learn off him.
“Roger’s pretty driven … he’s come across to be successful, he isn’t going to dilly-dally around.
“In the short time that I’ve seen him, I think he will be successful at this level.
“It’ll be good to give him a little kick-start before he starts with the Blues.”
McGrath revealed that Tuviasa-Sheck will have to wait to see the pitch for his new club, as they look to ease him until he’s more than ready.
“One of the things we’ve spoken about is that we don’t want to rush Roger, we want to make sure he’s given every opportunity to play once he’s prepared,” McGrath explained.
“I think the worst thing we could do is throw him into the deep end and let him go.”
With his versatility on show in rugby league, McGrath was asked where he envisions Tuivasa-Sheck playing positionally for his new club.
“I think long term there’s talk about him playing that position (number 12),” McGrath said.
“But like I said, we want to ease him into this process, so we probably see him as a right winger
“It’d be silly of us (not too), he’s played that position so let’s try and push him into that position at this stage.
“For us in the coming weeks we’ll look at him as a winger.”
Tuivasa-Sheck has signed a two year contract with the Blues, seeing him through until at least the end of the 2023 season.