Early morning sessions and an attitude adjustment have paid off for Wallabies hooker Tolu Latu, who will start for the NSW Waratahs in Saturday's Super Rugby semi-final against the Lions in Johannesburg.
Latu will get his first start of the season at the expense of Damien Fitzpatrick, who drops to the bench after starting all 17 of the Tahs games.
Coach Daryl Gibson says Latu's promotion from the bench is a "functional fit".
"Tolu has a bigger body, he's got some real strength areas around the breakdown and scrum in particular.
"We see that as probably the battle ground for us this weekend."
Latu was the Tahs' third-string rake for much of the first half of the season.
"He wasn't doing the work we required of him at that stage and the other two hookers were clearly working harder than him and getting the benefits and the reward that come with that," Gibson said.
"Tolu had a really good attitude adjustment; he committed himself to trying to be better every day.
"What that meant was coming in and doing those extra things that are required of a hooker particularly around his throwing.
"Then also (captain) Michael Hopper had a lot to do with that in terms of he made a commitment with Tolu that he would be at training at 7.30 every morning to catch those balls that he'd be throwing and I think through that he's grown.
"It's taken two to three months to really earn his way into to the team and he's done that that through hard work, so it's reward for him and obviously it's a big game in terns of what he can bring for our team."
Gibson said the Tahs would need to be very good to nullify opposing hooker Malcolm Marx, whose breakdown work he compared to Wallabies superstar David Pocock.
He acknowledged NSW would start the underdogs as they tried to become the first Waratahs team to win a Super Rugby away semi-final.
NSW Waratahs: Israel Folau, Alex Newsome, Curtis Rona, Kurtley Beale, Taqele Naiyaravoro, Bernard Foley (capt), Nick Phipps, Michael Wells, Will Miller, Ned Hanigan, Rob Simmons, Jed Holloway, Sekope Kepu, Tolu Latu, Tom Robertson. Replacements: Damien Fitzpatrick, Harry Johnson-Holmes, Paddy Ryan, Tom Staniforth, Brad Wilkin, Jake Gordon, Cam Clark, Bryce Hegarty.
