DARYL POWELL has revealed how Wakefield Trinity loose forward Jazz Tevaga played a big part in getting NRL superstar Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to sign for the club.
Wakefield confirmed the huge coup just a few hours before their 26-14 victory at York Knights on Friday night.
Explaining how the surprise move came about, Powell admitted Tuivasa-Sheck’s former Warriors and Samoa team-mate Tevaga helped.
He said: “He has the same agent as Jazz, so we got news that he would be interested.
“I think this comes from the way that you deal with players; you get an ability for agents to tip you on players that might be available.
“Roger became available and we became aware of it. So then we had me, Matt (Ellis, owner) and Millsy (director of rugby Ste Mills) on a Zoom call with Roger and his agent.
“We just said, ‘this is us, this is what we do, we’d like you to come, this is what we’d like you to do, to be a part of our organisation.’
“And then Jazz had a chat with him, so he’s got first-hand, this is the way the club is.
“But what does that look like from an offer perspective? And he wanted to do it pretty quick; Roger was wanting to decide on his future, get it over the line, and then he could put it behind him and concentrate on what he’s doing at the Warriors this year.
“It happened pretty quickly.
“It’s good that it’s done and we can concentrate on what we’re doing and we’ll crack on.”
One of Trinity’s leading players is homegrown fullback Max Jowitt but Tuivasa-Sheck might not necessarily play in that position.
Powell explained: “He’s a player capable of playing in numerous positions.
“Ultimately, for me, his leadership, his ability, wherever he plays, his ability is phenomenal.
“But his leadership in our back division – and we’ve got high quality players in our back division, quite a lot of young players – I think he’ll help significantly in terms of leadership in the group.”