ACT Brumbies lock Rory Arnold’s head in the clouds after meteoric rise from pub team to Super Rugby

BRUMBIES giant Rory Arnold is used to being the biggest unit in any rugby team. At 208cm, it takes a milk crate or two to top him.

****** DONT USE without permission of Daily Tele sports editor Adam Mobbs ***** Brumbies halfback Nic White with New Brumbies lock Rory Arnold, tallest player in Super Rugby at 208cm. At Brumbies Headquarters in Canberra.

BRUMBIES giant Rory Arnold is used to being the biggest unit in any rugby team. At 2.08m, it takes a milk crate or two to top him.

When the Brumby was a big Banana, however, Arnold had to share the honours with an exact replica.

“I used to play with my twin brother as well, he’s the same size,” Arnold explains.

“We were very similar athletes, only when I was back playing third grade, I played no. 8 and he played centre.”

Brumbies halfback Nic White is dwarfed by lock Rory Arnold.

With Rory and Richard Arnold, shock factor must have been a key weapon for the Murwillumbah Bananas thirsty thirds; a social team that Brumbies fans — and perhaps Australian rugby — will soon owe a debt of gratitude.

Rory Arnold has emerged as a bright prospect in Canberra this season but, amazingly, just three short years ago the big forward was playing thirds in his home town on the NSW north coast and working in a sugar mill.

Arnold had played league as a kid but given up sport at age 16. At age 20, and straining the scales at 140kg, someone suggested rugby.

“I was down at the local pub and one of the boys said come and have a run in the local third grade team,” he said.

Rory Arnold is the tallest player in Super Rugby at 208cm.

Thirds was the club’s only team, but after two years, someone suggested Arnold he take his obvious size and talent up the Gold Coast Breakers, who play in the Brisbane club comp.

In 2013, Arnold headed north and though he had a head start at six-foot-eight, so began a stratospheric rise into professional rugby.

With two old locks — Rob “Tiny” Nowlan and Garrick Morgan — as coaches, Arnold was picked in the combined NSW-Qld Country team and found himself playing against the British and Irish Lions.

That prompted a phone call from South Africa, where Currie Cup side Griquas were looking for locks. A professional career beckoned.

“I left my job the next day and went over for a crack,” Arnold said.

The trip would be the making of Arnold, but also saw his name go global briefly when he was sent off for biting in his opening game.

A suspension followed, but Arnold maintained his innocence, appealed and a week later had the ban overturned.

“I didn’t intentionally do anything wrong, so I was always careful I was going to get off. But there was a fair bit of publicity around it. It wasn’t a great start,” Arnold recalls. “There was a lot of publicity. Mum and Dad were a bit shocked.”

Contact from Jake White and several months of confronting lessons in South African physicality locked down Arnold’s future. He joined the Brumbies mid-way through 2014 following a shoulder injury, and after strong form in the NRC for the Canberra Vikings, the former third-grader has since started every game for the Brumbies this season.

How’s the weather up there?

“It’s a bit overwhelming to be honest. I have only played two games so I haven’t done much, but if I can keep my body right, hopefully I can keep getting selected week-in, week-out,” Arnold says.

Until 2.09m Lions reserve JP du Preez played last week, he was the equal tallest player ever in Super Rugby along with Andries Bekker

He is no longer an exact replica of his twin brother — Arnold has been trimmed down to 121kg in Canberra. But Richard is now forging his own way on the same path, having also moved up to play for the Gold Coast Breakers, as a forward.

Can we expect a bunch of Bananas at the Brumbies?

“Hopefully,” Arnold laughs. “We’ll see what happens.”

Originally published as ACT Brumbies lock Rory Arnold’s head in the clouds after meteoric rise from pub team to Super Rugby