How do you describe the mastery of Mark Nawaqanitawase when the man himself doesn’t even know where to start?

“It just happens.” That’s the only explanation “Marky Mark” offers when asked to relive the freaky moments he produces on the field – like the astonishing flick pass that led to the Roosters’ first try on Saturday and was cause for coach Trent Robinson to declare he has the best “ball mastery” he’s seen since the great Sonny Bill Williams.

“There are two things: you can have individual skill, but you can have ball mastery on the end of it? Have you got the skills? But have you got ball mastery,” Robinson said.

“Can you control that ball at all different angles, at all different heights? And that’s what he’s [Nawaqanitawase] 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’s called ball mastery, and he’s by far the best I’ve ever seen at that.

“Sonny Bill was the other one that had it. They’re in rare air those two, in my opinion.”

It’s high praise from the 13-year Tricolours coach, and a little embarrassing to hear for the quiet Roosters winger who loved Williams so much growing up he almost got the same arm tattoo as him.

The highlight-reel moments – the most famous of which won him the Dally M try of the year award in 2025 with a sensational individual effort against the Bulldogs – is the result of hours and hours of throwing the ball around the backyard as a kid.

“It’s not like I go out there [and I’m like], I’m going to throw it, I’m going to do it,” Nawaqanitawase said.

“It’s just the position I was put in – I felt like it was the only way to get it in. But just growing up I guess, playing with the ball, seeing what I can do with it, knowing what I can do with it, and being confident enough to do it.”

And it helps to know the centre on his inside – Robert Toia – is waiting and ready for freakish moments like that to happen.

The even more hilarious part, according to Nawaqanitawase, is that he had an almost identical moment against the Eels almost 12 months earlier.

“Just natural – you catch it, you’re just running, and I know I can put myself in a spot, it’s already in a spot to do it. It just happens.

“You definitely think about it. You do think like, ‘oh shit, that just happened’. And it’s funny because it obviously happened tonight against Parramatta, and it’s funny, I did it last year against them as well, which is actually hilarious.”

On a night when fellow Roosters winger Daniel Tupou should have had all the spotlight, playing his 300th game for the club, the milestone man took a moment to praise Nawaqanitawase’s work on the opposite side of the field.

“The freakish stuff you can see, obviously tonight, and the last year or two he’s been here, what he can create, it’s incredible to watch,” Tupou said.

“And like Robbo said, his mastery of it, there are similarities there [with Williams]. And just being able to see that first hand out there on the field, it’s crazy.”

With Nawaqanitawase returning to rugby next year – just in time for the 2027 World Cup – Tupou is still weighing up his future with the Tricolours.

After 15 seasons in the NRL, and at 35 years of age, Tupou doesn’t have a contract for next season, but Robinson said there was a place for Tupou at the Roosters in 2027 if he wanted it.

Now his 300th game is out of the way, Tupou said he’ll take some time to think about what his future looks like.

“I’m just doing my part for the team, and let the performance speak for itself,” Tupou said. “I’m just going to weigh up those options now and get prepared for next week.”

Billie Eder is a sports reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.