Rugby: Meandering path for strongman

James Paterson can lift more than Brad Thorn. Photo / Getty Images

Put a 98kg wing next to the 113kg All Black lock sometimes referred to as the "Colossus" and ask them to bench-press the same weights. It's a mismatch, right?

At Canterbury trainings it usually is a lopsided competition, with winger James Paterson coming out on top.

"He's the strongest guy in our group," says Canterbury coach Rob Penney. "He presses more than Brad Thorn." Cue disbelieving looks. "True story."

Penney puts Paterson's strength down to the weights regime he grew up with in the US, where he spent a lot of his youth. Christchurch-born Paterson has gone down the path less travelled to wear the red and black.

He lived seven years in the rugby weak-hold of post-communist Hungary, where his father worked as an agricultural consultant.

From there they went to Colorado - Paterson's mother, Deanna, is American - where he played running back in football, before getting a scholarship to university.

It is the American strength and agility training, drummed into him from a young age, that gives him a headstart on New Zealand-raised athletes.

Assistant coach Tabai Matson says Paterson needs to work on a few habits that are perhaps innate to those raised in a rugby-playing environment, but he has no doubt the 22-year-old can get there.

"He has a terrific work ethic and he's abrasive. He likes the contact and you can't teach that."

Resilient too. Knee injuries have hampered his career to date but he comes back fitter every time. And stronger.