“It’s massive”: Tuivasa-Sheck savours critical Warriors win after another outstanding individual display at fullback

The One NZ Warriors have kept their 2024 NRL season on life support with a 28-16 win over the Wests Tigers at Go Media Stadium on Friday.

The Warriors shot to an early lead against the Benji Marshall’s upstart side, who responded with an early second half blitz to bring them within four points and right back in the contest.

But led by the brilliance of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, the Warriors hunkered down and avoided the late skids of their past three weeks, closing out the contest comfortably, albeit with a late consolation try for the visitors.

The style points may not haver been high but neither the Warriors nor their faithful fans will be complaining, as they snapped their losing skid and instilled at least a minor glimmer of hope of securing an unlikely top-eight berth.

The significance of the result wasn’t lost on Tuivasa-Sheck, who was immense on both sides of the ball.

He sparked the Warriors’ stuttering offence – which ran in five tries to three - on several occasions and was perhaps even more impactful defensively, on hand with some astounding try-saving plays.

“It’s huge,” Tuivasa-Sheck told SENZ post-match, as he soaked up the plaudits from a sold-out Mt Smart immediately after the final whistle. “It's massive.

“There’s a lot of support from our people back here and I know they're riding the roller coaster just as much as we are and to get a win for them today - I'm happy for them and happy for our city.”

The former Dally M medallist says the team had focused on getting back to basics, and the approach paid dividends.

“There wasn't really too much tactical about tonight,” he admitted.

“We had to instill a bit of pride and a bit of physicality back into our game - run hard, tackle hard and let the ball do its work."

Tuivasa-Sheck finished with a game-high 250 running metres and eight tackle busts, a display certain to reignite the debate about whether coach Andrew Webster should award him the No. 1 jersey fulltime, as Chanel Nicoll-Klokstad works his way back to full fitness.

Not that he isn’t feeling the pinch of the extra demands involved in the custodian role.

“It’s very tough in today's game,” he said, clearly exhausted after his mammoth match. “A lot of work to be done and I'm enjoying just being on the field with these boys.

“Wherever the coach tells me to go, I’ll go.”

The Warriors will now turn their attention to the Mitchell Moses-less Parramatta Eels in what shapes as yet another must-win encounter in Auckland next Friday.