"It'll be a tough fight in the middle. Our forward pack taking on their big guys. They have had two weeks break, so you never know what it can be."

While the Rabbitohs have relocated their home games to Sydney Olympic Park, the eastern suburbs still makes up a large chunk of their fan base. Tuivasa-Sheck said the battle for supremacy in the east would also be on the line on Friday night. "

"We are aware of it because it's all over the media and in our local community. We know the Roosters fans heavily hate on Souths and Souths fans hate the Roosters. It's all good for the game. We know on the field there is a battle but off the field the players know we are here to play the game. I know [the rivalry] is in the area because we're close and we try and fight for the beaches. We thought we owned the beaches but now we come around and there's Souths flags everywhere. [When I'm driving] I'm thinking and looking at the flags thinking 'oh, I thought it was Roosters territory'. Obviously it wasn't."

While the Rabbitohs enjoyed last week off, the Roosters almost squandered a 30-nil lead against the Cowboys. Tuivasa-Sheck said it was "scary" when North Queensland drew level with more than 20 minutes remaining as his side discounted the impact halfback Johnathan Thurston could have.

"We were under the pump in the second half," Tuivasa-Sheck said. "In the first half we thought we had this in the bag but we underestimated Thurston. We showed that Thurston is a great player and he killed us. We are happy the boys stepped up in the end. The boys were looking around to see where we were going and what we needed to fix up. We knew what we needed to do. We just needed to come together, and we did."