In his second year of Super Rugby Pacific, NRL convert Roger Tuivasa-Sheck finally looks at home in the 12 jersey.
Tuivasa-Sheck, 29, showed glimpses of his elusive footwork and defensive abilities in the 2022 season, earning himself a call-up to the All Blacks where he played three matches after debuting against Ireland in July.
Now with both added domestic and international experience under his belt, former All Blacks scrum-half Justin Marshall believes the former NRL Dally M Medallist has come into his own with the Blues.
“Roger in the last two weeks has played much better than what we’ve seen him play recently,” Marshall told SENZ’s The Rugby Run.
“I think he’s actually starting to adapt and adjust now.”
An esteemed fullback in the NRL, Tuivasa-Sheck has moved into the midfield in union, a transition that was expected to take some time for him to adjust to.
However, the inside centre has been one of the Blues’ best performers so far in 2023, Marshall putting his form down to the added depth he’s found in the middle.
“(A) big part of it is if let that he’s probably recognised he just needed to take a little bit of depth,” he added.
“He was quite often getting ball and defender at the same time and it didn’t allow him to put any footwork or sort of get a weak shoulder on the defender because he was just basically too flat.
“I still think he could take another metre in depth, just to allow his strengths to come out which is obviously his explosiveness in his footwork, but yes, the last two weekends he certainly has greatly improved.”
While the Blues edged ahead of the Hurricanes 25-19 in Saturday’s Sky Stadium derby, it was the rivalry between Tuivasa-Sheck and All Blacks’ incumbent inside centre Jordie Barrett that had people talking.
Taking on one of the best second-five’s in the world, Marshall says Tuivasa-Sheck looked at home at 12 and is pressing his case for selection in this year’s Rugby World Cup squad.
“He was up against one of the best players going around at the moment in Jordie Barrett and he certainly didn’t look out of place,” Marshall said.
“Their clash, I thought, was quite even. I don’t know if he got the better of Jordie but he certainly didn’t lose any ground on him and he probably will be the starting 12 for the All Blacks this year so it goes to show you that RTS absolutely is in the mix.”
Tuivasa-Sheck outplayed Barrett in the offensive statistics, gaining 49 metres on attack from 15 runs with one clean break and one offload while his opposite gained 38 metres from eight runs and one offload.
The Blues will now prepare for their second huge local clash in as many weeks as they host the Crusaders at Eden Park on Saturday night.