KEY POINTS:
Like his namesake, Solomon King has the wisdom - in his case, knowing when to bury his head and just play where he's told, which is probably just as well.
After a robust display in Bay of Plenty's Air New Zealand Cup opener against Canterbury, the Te Puke
loosie probably expected to keep his place in the starting lineup against Auckland tonight.
But there's a twist - the 22-year-old has given up the No 8 jersey and will slide around to blindside flanker, with Warren Lippi-Smith moving into lock and Colin Bourke starting on the back of the scrum.
Seasoned observers, meanwhile, reckon King's natural position may indeed be at openside.
It's probably why he's not wasting too much time over the permutations - he's just keen to play.
"Whatever comes, I'll take it on the chin. I've played a lot of six at club level and a fair bit of No 8 recently, but I'm looking forward to having a few runs at seven as well," King says.
"It's kind of an all-rounder role like Chris Masoe, and that seems to be the way rugby's heading. A loose forward probably needs to play more than one position these days."
King was a flashy 17-year-old straight out of school in Taupo when he turned up at Te Puke training four seasons ago.
His athleticism meant he got time everywhere from lock to wing, which caught the eye of sevens maestro Gordon Tietjens.
"I spotted him a few years ago playing development rugby and was impressed with his athleticism, but above all he's got that crucial ingredient of pace," Tietjens says.
"I probably tested him mentally rather than physically at the start - he probably wasn't up to it physically - but he went away and really put in the hard work."
Last year that hard work, largely through the Bay of Plenty academy, paid huge dividends. He made the New Zealand colts and sevens sides and played three games off the bench for the Steamers.
"The sevens has helped me big-time," King says.
"In sevens, you notice when you miss a tackle and you notice when you make a good run, so everything's crucial. It teaches you to be accurate and it's really helped my 15s game."
The only downside has been the physical requirements of sevens. King lost up to 6kg playing the shortened version of the game up to his last tournament in Edinburgh this year, and has struggled to hit the 107kg target the Steamers trainers have set.
He's now 103kg, though his mature display against Canterbury last Saturday put paid to any contentions he's a lightweight.
"After what he did on Saturday night, I don't think I'll be seeing much of him again," Tietjens muses. "His pace off the back of the scrum was quite outstanding - I couldn't believe how far he was getting. And it wasn't like he was playing against bunnies either - Canterbury are a class outfit."
BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
