From 7th grade 'midget' to NPC

By CHRIS RATTUE

Question: What's short, blond and extremely quick.

Answer: Nothing you've seen on the Auckland wings for a good few years.

But enter James Somerset, weighing in at 82kg, and standing 1.78m.

The 19-year-old goes against the trends in an age when XXL wings excel, and rising stars are identified in their mid-teens.

Somerset was so small as a third and fourth former that he played 7th grade, the place for rugby midgets.

And he was still largely unheralded as a first XV centre for Sacred Heart. Yet less than two years after leaving school, he made Pat Lam's NPC squad after winning world titles with the NZ under-19 and 21 sides, and but for a wrist injury was in line for the national sevens squad.

A couple of factors, apart from his lack of size, may have hid Somerset's rugby light under a bushel at school. He was a year younger than most others in his academic level. And Somerset concentrated on getting a bursary, possibly at rugby's expense.

He studied science at university last year and is aiming for a career in conservation, but academia is on the back burner for now as his rugby career takes off.

His kick-start in the rugby big time came when a Marist coach, Peter Tubberty, contacted the Auckland Colts suggesting his club had a "good one". A trial beckoned.

Somerset was earmarked by those above for the wing, although his version has an accidental twist to it.

"It just sort of happened," he says. "I had a trial on the wing, just because of the numbers, and it wasn't really a decision about switching from the centres. But it worked. I felt comfortable there.

"What's happened in the past year or so has been been quite overwhelming ... It was only in the sixth and seventh form that I got a bit of weight, strength and speed.

"Most of the boys had developed a lot earlier, especially most of the Polynesian boys at school.

"I am conscious about my lack of size but it's down to your attitude. People can choose to see it as an advantage or disadvantage.

"I don't try to go in for the big tackles. I try to make effective tackles, which actually gives you an advantage because a lot of bigger wings tend to tackle a bit high."

Somerset himself bounces off tackles like a pinball, and has a string of spectacular tries to his name.

"People often ask me how I managed to do something and I can't remember really. It's instinctive, I guess," he says.

Like Christian Cullen, perhaps, who was Somerset's boyhood hero. It might have been very different, however. Somerset's parents, Englishman David and Kiwi Judy, met in New Zealand and then moved to Bristol, where James was born. Somerset, who has four brothers and a sister, was three when his family returned to Auckland, settling in Howick.

As an ex-pat English kid of sorts, he played soccer, as did his three older brothers, before he heard the call of rugby.

This late rugby recruit is not blinkered to the past, however. Tapes of old tests that get a viewing include the 1987 World Cup final between the All Blacks and France.

"I liked the fact that the All Blacks played so much as a team that day," says Somerset, who was just two at the time. "The game has changed a bit but the team side of things, playing together for each other, hasn't changed. That's what's important."

Which are the sort of sentiments that impressed Auckland coach Lam.

"I met the boy early on and was very impressed with his manner and attitude to life in general," says Lam.

Lam also likes the fact that Somerset - who prefers to play on the left - is a specialist wing rather than a utility a la Mils Muliaina, Brent Ward, Shannon Paku and Iliesa Tanivula, who have played on the Auckland flanks recently.

The match that clinched the deal for Somerset came when Lam watched the under-21 star answer the call from the Marist seniors, who had to beat University to stay in the premiers. Somerset scored three superb tries.

"I saw what he could do under pressure," said Lam. "He is lightning quick, beats men easily, and gets through half gaps. He's like Sam Tuitupou. There's a lot of power in that small body."


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