Trent Robinson has coached some of the biggest rugby league stars throughout his time at the Roosters, but he says not even the great Sonny Bill Williams had the \u201cball mastery\u201d that winger Mark Nawaqanitawase possesses.<\/p>\n
The former Wallaby \u2013 who will return to rugby union at the end of the year \u2013 added another freakish play to his overflowing highlight reel on Saturday night when he produced an incredible flick pass in traffic to set up a Robert Toia try. <\/p>\n
It would have been a fluke for any other player, but it\u2019s something he does almost every week which him makes the biggest box office star in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor any kids out there, there are two things \u2013 you can have individual skill, but you can also have ball mastery on the end of it,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might have the skills, but have you got ball mastery? Can you control that ball at all different angles, at all different heights?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what he\u2019s got. His ability to know where the ball is around his body, 360 degrees, how to change his fingers, how to change the pass, how to move it into space, that\u2019s called ball mastery.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s by far the best I\u2019ve ever seen at that. Sonny Bill was the other one who had it, but those two are in rare air.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams spent three seasons at the Roosters in between stints in rugby and was one of three players Nawaqanitawase idolised growing up.<\/p>\n
He was humbled to hear Robinson\u2019s comments given he grew up watching YouTube highlights of Williams doing amazing things with the ball, with Nawaqanitawase throwing an even more dazzling behind-the-back pass for Toia to score against the Eels last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like I go out there and plan to throw it. It\u2019s just the position I was put in, so I felt like it was the only way to get it in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up I played with the ball and saw what I could do with it and knew what I could do with it. Now it\u2019s being confident enough to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just natural. I\u2019m running and then I know that it\u2019s already in a spot that I can do it. It just happens. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt all happens pretty quickly. I was running to score the try, but there were a few guys trying to get me out and I knew I was very close (to the sideline) so that\u2019s why it all happened very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a big week for the superstar winger who won his first State of Origin series with the Blues on Wednesday, with the focus now shifting to a potential Rugby League World Cup debut at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s first game is against New Zealand on October 15, with Nawaqanitawase needing permission from Japanese club Saitama Wild Knights to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know yet. I\u2019ve got to talk to the club that I\u2019m going to. I\u2019ve got to work out dates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a great opportunity (to play) a World Cup so I\u2019d be more than happy to be a part of it. I\u2019ve just got to work it out, and it\u2019s up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, milestone man Daniel Tupou is weighing up whether he wants to run around again in 2027 after he became the first player to score a hat-trick in game 300.<\/p>\n
Only two players have scored more tries than the legendary Roosters winger who is playing as well as ever, but the 35-year-old needs to decide whether he is ready for another gruelling pre-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a question mark at the moment. I\u2019ve still got to sort it out with my manager,\u201d he said, with the Roosters keen for him to play on.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal was to get to 300. Now we\u2019re here, I can catch up with my manager and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trent Robinson has coached some of the biggest rugby league stars throughout his time at the Roosters, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,13149,4581,78628,158,9120,760,13642,85,4737,21418],"class_list":["post-795033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-contracts","tag-daniel-tupou","tag-mark-nawaqanitawase","tag-nrl","tag-roosters","tag-rugby","tag-skills","tag-sports","tag-trent-robinson","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}