It’s not often Melbourne Storm giant Nelson Asofa-Solomona walks into a room and has to look up at someone.
But as the New Zealand national teams gathered in Auckland last October, Asofa-Solomona’s eyes and neck had to do the work to make up the five centimetres Ben Te Kura, who was in camp with the New Zealand ‘A’ development squad, already boasts over him at 19 years of age.
Standing at 205cm, Te Kura is comfortably the tallest player in the NRL this season, ahead of Asofa-Solomona and Roosters wing Dominic Young who each measure in at 200cm.
Not that the Broncos rookie dared to bring up the topic when he got the chance to chat to ‘NAS’ in person, as part of a valuable week in which he got to train alongside his fellow rugby league giant.
“I would never, I value my life!” Te Kura told NRL.com when asked if he’d raised the height difference.
“I look at those big boys and see what they do and what works well for them. I don’t necessarily want to copy it, but add it to my game my way and do as much as I can.
“I hope I can go between middle and edge like Nelson does later in my career.”