RTS: The homecoming king
PLUS: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
Because we tend to look at sport in a binary fashion, we lump things into one of two categories: success or failure.
Inevitably, we will do this with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Resoundingly, I would suggest, we will assess his move to rugby as a failure and the Warriors as having just achieved a big “success” with his signing for 2024 onwards.
It would take a great PR writer to put a positive spin on his time in rugby, but he did play three tests for the All Blacks, with the outside possibility of more, which is three more than most kids who dream of pulling on the black jersey get to play. Balancing that, his three tests added up to 90 on-field minutes.
You can argue one of two things: he never really got the opportunity to learn how to play test rugby or, alternatively, he probably didn’t deserve the opportunity to play test rugby based on his performances for the Blues.
Neither is wrong.
Mostly, though, RTS’ time in rugby shows how fiendishly difficult it is now to make a late-career code hop. Even in the recent past league players found the switch quite manageable because they immediately brought advanced defensive instincts and front-on power into a code that was desperately seeking those tools. Players brought up in rugby union tended to defend by moving laterally to squeeze space on the outsides, but that is not how the game is really played any more. Right down to secondary school rugby, teams are playing a more front-on, middle-of-the-park game based on upper-body strength. League players no longer bring as many inherent differences with them.
Second-hand feedback I’d heard out of the Blues camp was that the coaching staff were initially surprised by some of the things Tuivasa-Sheck couldn’t do in terms of the finer skills, rather than what he brought to the environment.
This isn’t a knock on RTS, or on either code, but just a reflection of how structured (over-coached?) both sports have become and how, at the highest level, if you’re a little bit off in some of the nuances required to fit neatly into a position, the coaches will not risk having you exposed.
There was a hint of this in Leon MacDonald’s appraisal. The emphasis is mine.
“It takes a special kind of athlete to do what Roger has done,” MacDonald said. “He was really finding his feet in the midfield early on this season before picking up an injury.”
Tuivasa-Sheck might wish he tailored his switch to another position as well. Two years ago, second-five looked like an obvious position of weakness in the All Blacks, but since then David Havili has made strides in the position (still not convinced he’s a world-class 12, however), and Jordie Barrett, after an overdue switch, might end up being one of the greats. Throw Anton Lienert-Brown and Quinn Tupaea into the mix and suddenly it’s a tough gig to get.
Despite his struggles in the 15-man game, RTS remains an elite athlete, so it’s a big win for the Warriors, right?
Again, it’s slightly more nuanced than that and depends on how much salary cap space they’ve devoted to re-signing him.
RTS is a great player and a crowd-puller, but he will be 30 next year and it is valid to ask whether the Warriors have used a fair chunk of their cap to address a problem in their squad that doesn’t really exist?
Perhaps, but as it has been pointed out to me, the ‘delightful’ Matt Lodge’s payments come off the books next year and there are no obvious or overly expensive contract upgrades around the corner, so there is financial wiggle room to be had. Under those circumstances, why not go out and get a hometown hero, someone that won a Dally M while at the club?
The impressive Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad could move to centre to accommodate RTS at the back. Alternatively, but less likely, RTS could be a candidate for a run in the centres, though he might be frightened off anything to do with the midfield now.
Either way, my guess is we’ll give it four weeks into next year’s NRL season before determining whether the switch back was a “roaring success” or an “expensive failure”.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Michael Schumacher’s family is suing a German magazine over a “fake” interview it did with the stricken Formula One ace using artificial intelligence, specifically a chatbot.
The seven-times world champion has not been seen in public since he suffered a serious brain injury in a skiing accident in December 2013, but Die Aktuelle ran a front cover with a picture of a smiling Schumacher and the headline promising “Michael Schumacher, the first interview”.
The supposed quotes by Schumacher read: “My life has completely changed since [the accident]. That was a horrible time for my wife, my children and the whole family.
“I was so badly injured that I lay for months in a kind of artificial coma, because otherwise my body couldn’t have dealt with it all.”
The use of AI is going to raise a bunch of ethical questions, not just in journalism, but in copywriting, academic papers or anything requiring the printed word. Is it OK to let AI do some of the donkey work, the work that doesn’t require interpretation or empathy?
As an exercise in curiosity I recently tried it out. I picked a high-profile, relatively recently retired cricket star and requested a short biography of the player. It was absolutely unusable. Of about 300 words supplied, there was maybe one sentence I could have cut-and-pasted and inserted into a profile.
The software will only get better and more intuitive, but the chatbot’s appalling performance made me feel briefly better about life.
Steven Adams might be out injured, but he’s once again made the country proud, this time emerging as the player other NBA star’s would second-least like to fight. The big news came in The Athletic’s anonymous player poll ($), which among other things told us that 76ers’ big man Joel Embiid should be the league MVP and that Atlanta’s Trae Young was the game’s most overrated player (ouch!).
Adams was behind only Indiana journeyman James Johnson, who earned 41 percent of the vote compared to the Kiwi’s 28 percent, in the least-like-to-fight stakes. They were punching well above the next toughest hombres - Embiid and Udonis Haslem, both on 3 percent.
Ask, and ye shall receive. From yesterday: “Bowes could really use a score in the fourth T20I1 tomorrow morning, having now gone eight international innings without leaving much of a mark.”
From today:
The match was abandoned, however, after a hailstorm.
Brendon McCullum will avoid any sanction from the ECB for his role in promoting a betting app, which I highlighted in this space last week.
Reading the rather large spaces between the lines, he has been told to end the association quick-smart.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
What I’ll try to tune into over the next 60 hours or so, while also asking the question, “Can Tuesday ever be considered the weekend?”
It’s Anzac Weekend, so I get that the truncated Super Rugby round should include a bunch of New Zealand v Australia clashes. I don’t have to necessarily look forward to them, though. There’s no real reason I’ve chosen the below above the others - probably just because of when it’s on.
Blues v Waratahs, Auckland, tomorrow 7.05pm, Sky Sport 1
The answer to the question is, “No, Tuesday is not the weekend,” which is why the only NRL game The Bounce will be truly invested in this round is given the brackets treatment.
Parramatta v Broncos, Sydney, tonight 10pm, Sky Sport 4
(Melbourne v NZ Warriors, Melbourne, Tuesday 9pm, Sky Sport 4)
Lydia Ko. That’s all, that’s the only reason I’ll watch. It’s a good reason though. A solid first round one-under puts her in the mix for the year’s first major.
Chevron Championship, The Woodlands, tomorrow-Monday 5am, Sky Sport 1 & 6
My interest in hockey these days tends to be restricted to pinnacle events, but there’s a festival of internationals this weekend that warrants attention, both men’s and women’s.
NZ v Great Britain, women’s, Christchurch, Sunday 4.30pm, Spark Sport
Two of the US’ Big Four sports are in the midst of their playoffs and as always, there’s some sneaky good drama to be had in the early rounds. The biggest storyline could be happening in hockey, where the Boston Bruins just completed the greatest regulation season in history, breaking the record for wins (65) and points (135). They are not a particularly young team, however, and they looked gassed in losing Game 2 (and with it home-ice advantage) of their series against the Florida Panthers. A huge upset could be on the cards.
It would not be as seismic an upset if a blue-chip franchise beat an upstart one in the NBA, but it would be slightly disappointing if you’re hanging onto that thread of hope that Adams might defy the odds and suddenly appear with his surgically repaired knee deep into the playoffs. Oh, and there’s the Dillon Brooks LeBron James beef.
LA Lakers v Memphis, NBA R1 Game 3, Los Angeles, Sunday 2pm, ESPN
Florida v Boston, NHL R1 Game 4, Fort Lauderdale, Monday 7.30am, ESPN
There’s a lot of laughing to be had in English football recently, from the rapid decline and potential fall of Liverpool, to the even steeper decline and harder fall of Chelsea, to the predicament of Grand Old Everton (there is a very real danger of not just relegation but insolvency), to the FFP cheating allegations against Manchester City to the comical events at the back for Manchester United in the Europa Cup this morning. The rise of Brighton as a genuine footballing force is something to smile about as well, but in a genuine way, not as a cynical exercise.
Brighton v Man United, FA Cup semi, Wembley, Monday 3.30am, Sky Sport 7
I absent-mindedly said fourth ODI, not T20I in the original.
Lydia Ko - this course is too long for her, plus she is still a little rusty. Look to the US Women's Open at Pebble Beach, early July, for Lyds to make her mark!
One factor to remember for RTS was that lost NPC (or whatever it's called now!) Season in late 2021 when he made the switch over and Auckland entered into its 6 month lockdown. That could've provided a better reintroduction to the game without the same pressure. Hindsight is wonderful - but I have little doubt that first Blues season and ABs run would have benefitted massively from that NPC season. Or maybe it just wasn't meant to be after all.