{"id":347907,"date":"2026-03-26T00:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/347907\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T00:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:16:12","slug":"nz-warriors-still-hope-to-retain-roger-tuivasa-sheck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/347907\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ Warriors still hope to retain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NZ Warriors coach Andrew Webster hasn&#8217;t completely given up hope of retaining superstar Roger Tuivasa-Sheck beyond this season.<\/p>\n<p>By Grant Chapman for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/sport\/590603\/nrl-nz-warriors-still-hope-to-retain-roger-tuivasa-sheck-with-contract-extension\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The veteran wing&#8217;s future at the club has been up in the air since last year, when he was linked to the breakaway R360 union competition, which has been delayed until 2028.<\/p>\n<p>NRL players have been threatened with a 10-year ban if they sign with the Saudi-backed rebel outfit, so very few have declared their intentions.<\/p>\n<p>Former All Black Tuivasa-Sheck&#8217;s current contract with the Warriors ends this season, so he has been the subject of intense interest over his immediate prospects.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks ago, he was reportedly exploring options with Sydney NRL clubs. Latest rumours have him heading to the English Super League with Wakefield Trinity.<\/p>\n<p>Webster was loathe to fuel the speculation, but hinted Tuivasa-Sheck&#8217;s departure was not quite a done deal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve had plenty of conversations,&#8221; he acknowledged. &#8220;Whichever way it goes, whether he stays or wherever he ends up, if he plays union or plays league&#8230; if he leaves, he goes with our blessing and if there&#8217;s an opportunity for him at the end of the season to stay, we&#8217;d celebrate that too.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/roger-tuivasa-sheck-of-the-warriors-in-action-2ZBX4ZEUUFCS3D776YFBEVN6EQ.jpg\" alt=\"Roger Tuivasa-Sheck of the Warriors in action\" width=\"800\" height=\"498\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Roger Tuivasa-Sheck of the Warriors in action (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will all become clearer, but we&#8217;ve had really good conversation and we&#8217;re on the same page, which is always a good feeling between a player and a coach.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Webster had previously said he hoped Tuivasa-Sheck never left the club.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Tuivasa-Sheck, 32, played questions about his future with a straight bat.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My head is still down in the trenches for the pre-season,&#8221; he said during the Warriors pre-season. &#8220;Just trying to turn up each day, each week for the grind, because everyone is so fast and I have to keep up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Future stuff I will get to at some stage, but I&#8217;m always putting my actions on the field and do my talking from there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Conjecture ramped up this month, when Aussie media reported the Warriors were close to signing former All Blacks Sevens star and Melbourne Storm wing Will Warbrick.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Webster warned against believing everything heard on the rumour mill.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of the time, we&#8217;re linked to players that we&#8217;re not even close to signing or I get a text message from someone saying, &#8216;I heard so-and-so is starting tonight&#8217;, but no, they&#8217;re not.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know where it comes from, but sometimes where there&#8217;s smoke, there&#8217;s fire and sometimes they&#8217;re just miles off. Sometimes they&#8217;re just trying to pump up the price.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, he had no update on that situation.<\/p>\n<p>Tuivasa-Sheck is still the only Warrior to win the Dally M Medal as the NRL&#8217;s Player of the Year in 2018 and won his fourth Simon Mannering Medal as the club&#8217;s Most Valuable Player last year.<\/p>\n<p>The Warriors have several other players off contract beyond 2026, including Origin star Kurt Capewell and veteran second-rower Marata Niukore, who has been linked to Newcastle Knights in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t read too much into it, to be honest,&#8221; Niukore grinned. &#8220;It&#8217;s pretty clich\u00e9d, but that stuff will sort itself and, over time, I&#8217;m pretty sure we&#8217;ll knock it on the head and hopefully that&#8217;s it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He had &#8220;no idea&#8221; when an official announcement might be forthcoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NZ Warriors coach Andrew Webster hasn&#8217;t completely given up hope of retaining superstar Roger Tuivasa-Sheck beyond this season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,111,139,577,69,213,1745,3006],"class_list":["post-347907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nrl","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-uk-europe","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}