If lawn bowls is a thoughtful and genteel sport, all technique and touch, then why did Talor Duncan - one of the country's best young exponents - turn up to work on Monday morning with a black eye and a dicky knee?

It's because just one week after an historic win at the National Intercentre Development Bowling Championship in Auckland, this bear of a man – 22-years-old, 190 centimeters and 111 kilograms – was in the middle of the lineout for the Greerton Marist premier development grade rugby team.

That's where he got the tickle up. He then sat on the bench for the prems.

'Perhaps a slot in the Commonwealth Games bowling team is a long term ambition, but not immediately,” he says. 'Focusing on rugby is my priority while the body is still young. I'll see where that takes me.”

So Talor Duncan's a lawn bowler, and an accomplished one, who is also a rugby lock forward, who is also a KPMG accountant. 'Put them all together and it's an interesting combination.”

His mates all have a good laugh at the expense of Talor the lawn bowler. 'It is banter more than anything,” he says, 'but when they see my results and how well I am doing, their attitudes change.”

For the first couple of days of the development tournament, Talor's bowls were as dicky as that knee. 'I struggled, and had trouble adapting – the Howick greens were a bit quicker than we're used to.”

But he survived a drive late in the final to win 21-19 and give the Bay of Plenty the National 1-8 Years Intercentre Championship – a tournament for developing players. The team's win has been hailed as one of the defining moments for the development of the game in this region.

Talor Duncan comes out of Tauranga Boys' College's bowling programme. 'The attraction was getting out of school, because there were quite a lot of trips,” he says.

'And then once you are reasonably good at it, you want to get better, see how good you can get and see how far it takes you.”

There was the obvious fact that bowls isn't high impact or high physicality. 'It's a thinking game, and it was the mental side of things that attracted me.” And he had to rely on his own ability. 'There's no excuses if I don't play well - I can't blame anyone else.”

As a 22-year-old rugby lock forward, Talor's not of typical bowls stock. 'No, I am not retired,” he jokes.

But he says around the Bay of Plenty you will find lots of guys whose bodies have told them to give up rugby and golf. 'So they've taken to bowls because they still have that edge and they still get that competitive environment.”

He too has enjoyed that competitiveness – from the National Secondary Schools Tournament when he was at college to the high-performance level of New Zealand Under-18s four years ago and the recent Intercentre cliff-hanger at Howick.

He quickly dismisses as 'uneducated” the perception that bowls is a simple game for the elderly.

'There are many things that affect the direction and result of the bowl – greens all run differently, while the weather, such as cloud cover, will make the greens play differently, as will rain and heat.”

Then there's the type of bowls you use. 'We all play differently, letting the bowl go at different angles and understanding that our ability and how we bowl will react to the way you play it.” There's a lot to think about.

The accountant has also become something of an ambassador for the game. He has taken workmates along to the club for a Friday afternoon roll-up, a barbeque and a few drinks.

'They're all sitting there saying ‘this is quite fun and I can see why you do it'.”

Social bowls is apparently huge in Australia – people who turn up once a week for a game and an occasion. 'That's where the bowling community is progressing and where the game has the most room for development,” he adds.

Incidentally, the rugby-playing lawn bowler is also a black belt in Taekwondo who is very good with spread sheets.