Du'Plessis Kirifi might be shorter than your average loose forward, but he's hoping a recent size increase will tip the scales in his favour.
The flanker has added around 4kg to his 1.80m frame over the summer and is now approaching the 110kg mark.
"Our bodies are what we use everyday. I definitely have put some work into mine, tried to put on a little bit of weight and worked on my fitness," Kirifi said.
Comparatively, the 26 year-old is now more in line with the weight of All Blacks loose forwards Sam Cane, Akira Ioane, Hoskins Sotutu and Ardie Savea despite being around 10cm shorter.
Three years after receiving a call up to the All Blacks' Tri-Nations squad as unused injury cover, he's yet to get another chance to make his debut.
Despite captaining the Wellington Lions to an historic NPC title in 2022, Kirifi was a surprise omission from the All Blacks XV tour last year.
While he was disappointed to have missed out, it's only made him work harder.
"Yeah 100%, we use those things for a bit of motivation if you didn't have enough already," he said.
"I'm not saying it's at the front of my mind but it was a definitely a good chance for me to reflect and be like 'OK, I'm playing well but maybe not well enough'."
But that hard work could soon pay dividends.
Last week Kirifi was spotted with All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan by 1News at Hurricanes HQ in Lower Hutt.
"I wouldn't look too much into any of that, but any good coach does the rounds and touches base with players.
"He gave me a few things to work on and a few of the things I'm doing well and it was just a nice conversation to have with him to pick his brains and see where he's at," the flanker said.
Kirifi will have another chance to impress the All Blacks selectors on Saturday afternoon when the Hurricanes take on the Fijian Drua in Suva.
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