Human skyscraper Rory Arnold is a perfect fit for the Wallabies pack which is a far cry from his rookie days squeezing into ill-fitting boots for his big-game debut.
Arnold’s rise to 30-Test Wallaby and Champions Cup hero in Europe is always the ultimate tale of unearthing a gem from the most unlikely of places.
Read the Official Wallabies v Springboks Test Program here!
There was no rails run at the right school, Rugby academy or the Junior Wallabies to reach Saturday night’s frontline role at lock against the world champion Springboks at Adelaide Oval.
For accuracy, the metaphor should really be “unpeel” a gem from the most unlikely of places.
Before he was a proud Wallaby, a lineout leader for French giant Toulouse, a Brumbies fixture and the next million-dollar man in Japanese Rugby, he was simply a third grader chasing fun for the Gentleman of Murwillumbah.
The amateur club, with a banana as an emblem, was where Arnold’s humble journey began in the game on the Far North Coast of NSW. A few beers and boisterous bus trips in 2011 were rewards in those carefree days when he first found the code.
Twin brother Richie, a former sugar mill rigger, was just as big a handful in the same team before he too started winning trophies with Toulouse.
The brothers trained barefoot when they first turned up to train with Murwillumbah before boots of the right size arrived.
“There were boat races (drinking games) after every game. That was Rugby in the bush playing in Byron Bay, Bangalow and so on … it was great fun,” Arnold said.
“I wasn’t much of a lineout guy in those days because none of the boys could get me up in the air so I did the lifting instead.”
The towering 208cm figure was named the best player in the competition by 2012 even though the Bananas didn’t even field a first grade side.
Then-Murwillumbah coach Phil Lees knew he had someone special in the ranks from the outset.
Arnold’s dexterous ball-handling, his authority on the field and athleticism were always there. He’s never been an awkward giant.
Arnold is forever grateful that Lees got him to think bigger and better about where he might end up in Rugby. That led to a link with the Gold Coast Breakers in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition in 2013.
Breakers coach Rob ‘Tiny’ Nowlan, a 200cm lock in his playing days with the Manly Marlins in Sydney, and 201cm former Wallaby Garrick Morgan were unaccustomed to looking up to anyone. Both championed giving Arnold a break at a higher level.
As coach, Morgan made sure Arnold was picked as a wildcard for the Combined Queensland-NSW Country side to face the 2013 British and Irish Lions in Coffs Harbour.
To play, Arnold had to bear the discomfort of squeezing into a pair of borrowed Size 15 boots. It’s no wonder Arnold always seems delighted to see the Asics counter at any team outfitting because he knows he’ll find a pair of the right Size 16s.
You can imagine how quickly the lifter became the liftee with his wingspan and glue-tipped fingers in the air.
It took time to build up his engine and gain that extra fitness so he wasn’t cramping late in games.
Stepping into the Canberra Vikings set-up for the 2014 National Rugby Championship and the 2015 Brumbies turned him into the real deal as a professional player.
The speed of the game, the roles, the structures ... all became ingrained during his five seasons at the Brumbies where now-Wallabies forwards coach Dan McKellar was a constant and productive mentor.
Watch how Arnold and fellow lock Darcy Swain exert such influence on the rolling maul whether it is steering it or disrupting an opposition drive.
Making his Wallabies debut against England in 2016 was the start of Arnold taking his game to another level as a world class lock. His time in the exacting environment of the French Top 14 has only been a benefit to refining his game.
Sharing the prize as champions of Europe with Richie in May, 2021 was a high for the brothers who, of course, earned the ‘Twin Peaks’ moniker.
Imagine the elevation. One 208cm brother lifting another 208cm lock in lineouts to all but snatch the ball from the flight path of low-flying aircraft.
That 22-17 victory over La Rochelle in the Champions Cup final at Twickenham was reward for everything they had put into the week-to-week demands of French Rugby.
The ongoing benefits to him as a Wallabies lock are obvious to Arnold.
“Firstly, it’s around set piece. I sort of controlled and ran the lineout in Toulouse. That was my job for the last two or three years,” Arnold said.
“I played a lot of big games in front of big crowds. I got more used to that. Those Champions Cup games in Europe, the semi-finals and finals, have that international, Test sort of feel.
“There’s definitely the quality of players too with Test experience. I look forward to bringing that experience back to the Wallabies.”
Playing alongside French Test stars Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack in the Toulouse side was a sign of the elite company he was keeping.
Arnold’s whole career has been about chasing improvements and that part of him never stops.
He may now have played 30 Tests but they haven’t come as a continuous run of representation.
It’s a jigsaw of two, three and four Tests in a row and then a break or an injury. The longest run at Test Rugby he’s enjoyed is six Tests in a row back in 2017.
“Absolutely. Consistency is where I’ve struggled before, both consistency in performance and stringing games together back-to-back,” Arnold said.
The recent Test against Argentina in San Juan was his first after a calf strain and a lay-off since the end of his final French season.
The big Tests ahead against the ‘Boks and the All Blacks, plus a European tour, may just be an ideal run of games to develop his full worth in gold.
At 32, the Wallabies have not yet seen the very best of Rory Arnold which is an upbeat thought with all roads leading to France and next year’s Rugby World Cup.
