Chiefs’ flyer Shaun Stevenson has been electric this season but admits he still has one eye on the NRL after contact with the Dolphins at the end of last year.
Stevenson, 26, has been one of Super Rugby Pacific’s best this season, building on his 2022 form to contribute heavily to the Chiefs’ success, where they have dropped just one match in 12 fixtures.
With 10 tries so far in the season, Stevenson lies first equal on the leaderboard with Crusaders’ Leicester Fainga’anuku, while ranking in the top 10 for clean breaks, metres carried and offloads.
It is this sparkling form that saw NRL coaching great Wayne Bennett take interest in the utility back and while Stevenson ultimately chose the Chiefs, he has revealed what went down with the esteemed coach last year.
“I actually flew over and saw him in his farm in Toowoomba and it was nice to have a conversation with him,” Stevenson told SENZ Breakfast.
“Yeah, it was good, I mean … seeing him in real life, it’s pretty confronting because you don’t know what to say because he’s Wayne Bennett.
“But it was a good conversation and he’s a really nice man and he was just talking about what Redcliffe looked like for me and whatnot.
“It was a cool conversation to have, and it was just nice to meet the guy and talk about league and whatnot at that point of my career so yeah, it was cool.”
Stevenson added that he has been keeping a close eye on the Dolphins in their inaugural season and has been impressed by what they have achieved in the early season.
While the fullback opted to continue his career in rugby union, he is still yet to confirm his future beyond 2023 as his contract expires at the end of this season.
Stevenson says his focus remains on winning a title with the Chiefs and hopefully cracking into the All Blacks, but a decision on his future will come soon.
“I’m quite happy just sitting back at the moment and playing some footy,” he added.
“I haven’t signed anywhere for next year so yeah, I’m just looking forward to the next few weeks and seeing what happens with that.
“Then I guess we’ll make some decisions around that soon, but yeah I guess (I’m) just focusing on the next few weeks and we’ll go from there.”
The Chiefs have two final fixtures remaining in the Super Rugby regular season, taking on the Brumbies on Saturday night in Canberra before heading to Perth to face the Force in Round 15.