Seuseu mixes learning and laying down law

'The main principle has to be to establish room for the talented players outside us'

The hardness of Jerry Seuseu's head is not in question. Just ask Stuart Fielden or any of the world's other front-rowers who have clashed with him over the last couple of seasons. What might surprise many is how much there is going on inside it.

The New Zealand prop, who faces Great Britain in the second Test at Huddersfield tonight, is not your average practitioner of that position. Not many of his ilk, for instance, miss a tour match in order to sit a law exam.

"It was really to do my preparation for the exam the following day and the coach was good enough to give me the match off when we played at Brentford," he said. "It was my intermediate law paper that I have to pass to get into the Auckland University Law School."

Seuseu's long-term ambition is to qualify, via 11 other papers, and set up a legal practice with his wife ­ not a typical prop forward's career path, any more than his love of crosswords is a typical front-rower's hobby.

"Different people have different interests," he said. "It's all about having some options in life and perhaps showing young players coming into the game that they can keep up with their studies. Football's been good to me and I'll let it run its course and see what happens after that."

At 28, Seuseu quite possibly has a few more seasons left, which is bad news for those who have come into contact with his rugged approach to the game. Last Saturday, his clash of heads with Fielden had veteran observers of such collisions wincing involuntarily in the back of the stands. The Great Britain man was helped off the field and the most surprising thing was that nothing in the jaw and cheekbone department was broken.

"It was completely accidental," insists Seuseu, like many of his team-mates, a devout Christian. "In fact, I was relieved I'd not done something to myself like Richie Barnett did a couple of years ago.

"It's very, very hard to butt someone deliberately at those sorts of speeds. I did try to take advantage of it to motivate my team, just like some of the Great Britain players did."

In the vanguard of that was Adrian Morley, who went looking for a spot of retribution for the extra little nudge Seuseu administered with what he himself calls his "hard Samoan coconut head" when the two were on the floor.

"I get on well with Jerry, who's a very decent bloke," Morley says. "I accept the first contact was accidental, but I thought what happened afterward was a bit unnecessary."

Seuseu says that "there was nothing in it", but he can expect a little extra attention from the British forwards at the McAlpine Stadium, with Fielden ­ described by his coach, David Waite, this week as "a world-class prop" ­ particularly keen to show that he has not been intimidated by his head-to-head experience.

"I think they'll be better for the run and quite a bit tougher," said Seuseu, whose previous trip to Britain was as part of the Samoa World Cup squad in 2000. "I thought Fielden played really well. He's a good, tough prop."

So, despite his unusual range of extracurricular activities, is Seuseu, who takes a traditional view of his role in a side packed with so much extravagant ball-skill.

"It's always a case of us having to lay the foundation. The main principle for the pack has to be to establish some room for the talented players outside us, but it's going to be hard."