The ascent of Nathan Harris to the Baby Blacks followed an unusual path.
He was not the best player in the Tauranga Boys' College first XV - in fact, he had to change positions to accommodate more illustrious teammates.
Nor did he leave Bay of Plenty coaches eagerly awaiting hisprogression to the provincial team as he toiled away for Te Puke Sports' premier side in the Baywide club competition.
But Harris overcame his positional switch from No 8 to hooker and emerged from his unglamorous surroundings to claim a spot in New Zealand's under-20 squad for this month's world championships in South Africa.
After spending his entire rugby life on the back of the scrum, Harris was forced into the rake role after Sam Cane - who last weekend scored two tries on his run-on debut for the All Blacks - arrived at Tauranga Boys'.
Harris initially struggled with the technical aspects of the demanding position, but showed enough promise to make the Bay of Plenty and Chiefs' under-18 teams in his first season hooking the scrum.
"My first year of rep footy at hooker was testing," Harris told the Bay of Plenty Times last month.
"My body type hasn't changed because I'm still growing into the weights and the bulking up, but the core roles of scrummaging and throwing have really taken some work."
Harris played for Te Puke Sports as a junior and said one of his earliest rugby memories was playing for the club at Blake Park in Mt Maunganui. Years later, he followed his father, Quentin, into Te Puke's premiers while also playing the Bay of Plenty development squad.
His exploits for those teams were enough to earn him elevation to his first national under-20 camp last November and, determined to win a spot in the world championship team, he spent the summer treating training like a fulltime job.
"Some people don't like getting out of bed early to hit the gym and I was one of those but, when you boil it down, rugby is like a job and if you don't do your job properly or are always late you get fired."
That dedication eventually paid off, with coach Rob Penney selecting the 1.82m, 106kg Harrison for the Baby Blacks' world title tilt.
