How lonely full-time laps forged NRL's biggest motor

Siosiua Taukeiaho credits lonely running laps of suburban Auckland grounds after his junior footy matches for his irresistible claims to being the NRL's form front-rower.

An apprentice mechanic during his early years at the Roosters, his phenomenal engine reached rare outputs on Anzac Day, less than a week after the Tongan powerhouse was stuck in bed, unable to move due to back spasms.

There was no sign of the sudden lower back issue that ruled him out of last week's golden-point thriller in Melbourne, with Taukeiaho the star once again in a spectacular SCG show on Thursday.

Before nabbing the 77th-minute try that extinguished a late Dragons comeback, Taukeiaho's 253 metres from 23 runs and 20 tackles left a capacity SCG crowd in raptures.

It's a far cry from the hard yards that delivered him to the top of his game, when a 13-year-old Taukeiaho would simply keep on running after a match under the watchful eye of his old man Nuku.

"When I was young and I didn't have a good game my dad would try and get me to stay back and run around the field," Taukeiaho said.

"Looking back that all kind of pays off.

"I've always had that engine when I was a kid. My dad was pretty strict when I was young and it was the fitness thing that he was focused on in me.

"And I think I had that mentality as a kid. And then coming here from New Zealand as a kid I still had that mentality, [the Roosters] just took it to another level."

With a grin Taukeiaho confirms his dad will "call me after this", a lead role in the Roosters' 20-10 defeat of St George Illawarra.

"He won't make me do laps but he's always got something I need to improve on. It's always good to have my dad to talk about my games."

Only adding to the growing hype around Taukeiaho's metre-eating efforts is the fact he's pushed through an ongoing hamstring injury for several weeks in 2019.

Finally rid of the niggling issue that has limited his training, the 108kg Tongan international was immobilised on the morning of last week's enthralling grand final rematch with the Storm.

Which did at least make him the first person to tell his roommate rookie teammate Josh Curran he would be making his NRL debut.

"My lower back locked up and I couldn't really move leading into that Melbourne game," Taukeiaho said.

"It was something new. That doesn't really happen.

"I was actually in bed when it happened. It pretty much just locked up and I couldn't really move.

"Josh Curran was my roommate. I told him straight away, 'you might play here'.         

"I stayed on top of it during the week. I had a lot of physio/rehab stuff so it was good tonight."