"Obviously [Roger and I] have to do what we can to make sure the Warriors get over the line," Luke says. "At the moment, I am just worried about the Kiwis and what we can do here [in England] ... but for all that raw talent to go down the drain ... far out."
Aside from their on-field talent, Luke and Tuivasa-Sheck are expected to drive change off it.
Luke made it to the NRL the hard way, leaving his family in Hawera to pursue his dream at the Bulldogs, then the Rabbitohs. He's got a fierce drive to make it - always has had - that isn't always apparent among some of the local players at the Warriors.
"To want to play NRL, you have to be hungry - really, really hungry," he says. "If you are not, you won't make it. Or you might make it at first but you won't survive. I always had that. In Hawera, there are not many people who can walk out of there and call themselves NRL players but I wanted to be someone. I thought if I make it, the whole town makes it."
As well as reviving the Warriors, Luke wants to revitalise the code and inspire others into the sport.
"There are still kids back home that have so much talent but they just blew it away," Luke says. "A lot of guys have the same raw talent and just need to be shown the right direction; to be able to turn a lot of their heads and show them that there is a way where you can be the man on the field and be the man off the field as well. A lot of that is going to fall on me and Roger when we come back to New Zealand, to be able to take rugby league to another level."
Luke also hopes he can inspire kids to "get off the streets" and change their own lives through sport, not just league.
"Jonah Lomu, back in his day, managed to turn a lot of the Polynesian heads into the right space, and look where they are now," Luke says. "If me and Roger can have that same influence when we come home - there are better things than what you are doing on the street. Go to a park, kick a ball around. It doesn't have to be league - it could be basketball, soccer, anything - as long as they aspire to something and work hard."
He says there were two options growing up in Hawera: the gangs or meat works. But his father, George, a representative rugby league player, encouraged Luke and his two brothers to play sport as a means to break the cycle.
"There were a lot of temptations there," Luke says. "I had friends who started drinking when they were very young. I used to see guys falling out of the pub and I thought, 'I don't ever want to be like that. I want to be someone'.
"My dad always used to sit us down to watch NRL games, especially Broncos game, and he would turn around and say to us, 'I hope I can watch you on TV one day'. I managed to get there."
It was a long journey. After playing Bartercard Cup as a 15-year-old in Taranaki, he spent two years in Wellington (he attended the same school as Simon Mannering and played for the Orcas) before getting a scholarship to the Bulldogs. But he struggled at Belmore and was ready to return home before a fateful conversation with his partner (now wife).
"I said, 'I'm going back, the Bulldogs don't want me'," he explains. "Then she told me we were having a baby. That changed everything. I thought, 'well, I'll have to find him some money'. I went to Souths, barely on anything, to be honest, but my motivation went way up. I had to make it for him."
His partner, then living in Brisbane, brought their seven-week-old son Adaquix down to Sydney to visit him on Luke's 20th birthday. A week later, he made his debut for Souths. He's since amassed 188 NRL appearances, 34 tests, a World Cup and two Four Nations titles.
Only one thing remains - an appearance in a grand final and bringing a certain trophy to New Zealand.
• Autex - Proud sponsors of New Zealand rugby league since 1981.
Issac Luke
• Made his NRL debut in round 12 of the 2007 season, a 26-10 loss to the Storm.
• Played his first match for the Kiwis less than a year later, in the 2008 Anzac test.
• Has played more tests (34) than any other Kiwi in the current squad, and only two players (Adam Blair and Shaun Kenny-Dowall) pre-date his appearance in the national side.
