Maturity gives Morley the chance to turn rashness into inspiration on his Test return

'I knew I was doing something right when I won over the Aussie journalists'

Adrian Morley has thrown down the gauntlet to Ali Lauiti'iti – one of his rivals for the title of the most damaging second-rower in world rugby league – by claiming that the New Zealander could be one of Great Britain's main assets in the first Test at Blackburn this evening.

Apart from Australia's Gorden Tallis, Lauiti'iti, with his size, strength and sleight of hand, would seem to many people to be just about the most dangerous forward in the game.

But Morley sees it another way – and he has the experience to back it up. "In the Australian Grand Final, Lauiti'iti was one of our best players. Two or three times he tried to get the ball away when it wasn't on and we got the turn-over. That's the thing about them. If you bang them in the tackle, if you jam them, they try to get the ball out in risky situations."

Morley does not regard himself primarily as a tactician, but he knows what he is talking about. His Sydney Roosters beat the New Zealand Warriors in that Grand Final five weeks ago and it was his no-frills approach, rather than the fancy handling of Lauiti'iti and Co that carried the day.

"David Waite [the Great Britain coach] is a very astute coach," Morley says. "I can't tell him a lot he doesn't know. But I've played against the bulk of the Kiwi team three times this year and I've told the boys what I know about them – and they seem to have taken it on board."

Morley's hands-on knowledge of how to combat the Kiwis is just one benefit of having him back in the Great Britain camp. Much to his frustration, injuries have kept him out of Test sides since 1999 and there is lost time to be caught up.

"I've been impatient for this day and, yes, there is a danger of trying to make up for lost time by doing it all at once. But I'm a different player now. I'm 26, I'm older and wiser and I don't do the impetuous things I used to. I don't make as many rash decisions."

Talking of which, Morley still looks back with chagrin at his Test debut against New Zealand in 1996. Then, after coming on as a substitute, his hot-headedness got him sin-binned and the game slipped away from Great Britain in the last few minutes. "It was a day of incredible highs and lows for me," he recalls. "Playing for Great Britain was the best day of my life and I finished up in tears, because I'd let everyone down."

Morley has learnt to control his aggression since then, although no coach would want him to lose the raw emotion with which he plays the game. His two seasons in Australia have also honed the technical side of his game to the point where his captain at the Roosters, the incomparable Brad Fittler, picked him out as their key player in the Grand Final.

"I didn't know he'd said that until one of my mates told me later," he says. "Coming from someone like him, that's a bit special. I was pleased with they way everything went towards the end of the season. I knew I was doing something right when I won over the Aussie journalists and they started writing nice things about me, because they're always keen to write off Poms."

Having gone away as a player of obvious potential, Morley has come back as something close to the finished product - and it truly has been a return of the native. The team's hotel on the outskirts of Manchester has been close enough to his old stomping ground in Eccles for him to nip out for a bonfire night with his brother and nephews.

Given his ill-luck before recent Great Britain matches, there had to be a risk of him getting a rip-rap in his welly or a banger in the hood of his duffle-coat, but, having survived that, he will be vital for his country today.

Although he will start in his original position of second row, the absence of a fourth specialist prop in Waite's 17 means that he will inevitably spend some time in the front row, just as he has for the Roosters.

Whatever his precise position, his brief from the coach will be clear – to rip into the Kiwis, to hammer them in the tackle and to run the ball at them with ferocity.

If he can do that – and keep his short fuse from igniting under the inevitable provocation – Morley can be Great Britain's inspiration this evening. That would square the account after that disastrous debut six years ago and mark his return to Test rugby league in the best possible way.