A rugby playing science teacher will be able to hold his head high when he returns to school after scoring 86 per cent in the BBC's Test the Nation show.

Sean Maywood, head of Science at Oathall Community College, in Haywards Heath, was one of 50 rugby players who took part in the giant quiz to test the national IQ on Monday night.

Six teams of 50 people, including hairdressers, cabbies, parents, teenagers, secretaries and rugby players answered 70 questions on everything from sport to politics to pop in a bid to find out who was the brainiest.

They were joined by a group of celebrities as well as millions of people around the nation who joined-in via the internet or with old-fashioned pen a paper.

And Sean, 33, who plays rugby for Tunbridge Wells, will be returning to school safe in the knowledge he will not be ribbed for putting in a poor performance, especially as the rugby players came second only to the celebrities.

He said: "It was really good. We did well as a group of rugby players. I was quite pleased with my result.

"They put a bit of pressure on me at school that I had to do well. I think it is the staff that would have given me the most stick rather than the children if I had done badly."

Sean decided to apply for the programme after an email was sent to his rugby club asking for participants.

He and other rugby players from around the country travelled to London for the show, which went out live, where they were briefed, given Christmas dinner and had a few practice questions to work with.

Sean said: "There was quite a bit of hanging around, then we went into the studio and it went very quickly.

"I got on very well with the other rugby players. Rugby players are generally a good group. If you walk into a rugby club anywhere you will end up in conversation with someone within a few minutes. I think that is probably one of the reasons we did so well.

"The questions were okay. The only section I did really badly on was the pop music section because I object to things like Pop Idol and have never watched the programme.

"I must have got at least five questions wrong in that section out of 15."

Asked whether he would do it again, Sean said he would definitely be keen although he was not so sure about his wife's suggestion to try his hand at Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

He said: "It was fun and it was exciting. My wife always nags me for watching trivia shows and answering the questions and says I should go on Who Wants to be a Millionaire but I think not. It was nice to do this in a non-pressured environment."