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Rugby league luminary Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is adamant All Black Ardie Savea would make a triumphant transition to the NRL if he follows his heart next year.
Game breakers from both rugby codes are convinced Ardie Savea would be a sensation if he makes the seldom-seen jump from the All Blacks to the NRL.
Star flanker Savea has stirred up a storm in New Zealand by revealing his desire to exit the national sport and switch to the 13-man code next year, driven by the challenge of the NRL and to represent Samoa internationally.
Kiwis great and Warriors captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck jumped on the Savea bandwagon on Wednesday, declaring the 26-year-old a near-certainty to make a successful transition if he follows through.
He believes Savea hasn't changed from the focused athlete who was a teammate in the 2011 New Zealand secondary schools rugby union team.
"He's just a champion athlete. He'll kill it if he made his way across here, I truly believe that," Tuivasa-Sheck said.
"He's just someone that challenges himself each time and he's always looking forward to a new challenge.
"If he does, I wish him all the best and hopefully he comes here (Warriors)."
The latter desire appears unlikely after Savea told a podcast audience he'd prefer to play for a powerhouse Australian club such as Melbourne or Sydney Roosters.
Hurricanes winger Ben Lam, Savea's Super Rugby teammate, revealed the players often spoke openly about the possibility of playing in the NRL but few do because of uncertainty over how they would fare.
Top Kiwi players who leave Super Rugby inevitably take up a lucrative northern hemisphere rugby union club contract.
Prolific try-scorer Lam will do that this year, when he joins French club Bordeaux.
However, he believes Savea has the skill-set to succeed in the NRL.
"(Savea) is a special player. I think any sport he did do, he'd do very well," Lam said.
If he plays in the NRL, Savea will be the first All Blacks player to do so since Sonny Bill Williams interrupted his burgeoning rugby union career to join the Roosters for a triumphant stint in 2013-14.
Brad Thorn made the switch when returning to Brisbane in 2005-07.
All Blacks outside backs Matthew Ridge, Craig Innes, John Timu, John Kirwan and Marc Ellis all played in the equivalent of the NRL in the early 1990s, before rugby union turned professional.
