“I just don’t know,” Mike Brown says ruefully when asked how he might discover whether he has been selected for Eddie Jones’s first squad as England’s head coach. “I’m not sure whether we’ll get a text or a call. I really don’t know how he will do it.”
The England full-back rubs his shaven head and smiles, a little nervously, as he admits he does not even know when the news may be broken to the players before the announcement is made on Wednesday. It would be a shock if Jones excluded him but Brown spreads his hands and opens his eyes wide to stress nothing is certain.
“I’m just not sure,” Brown says softly. “It’s exciting whenever England comes up, like now, with the selection. It’s also more exciting when new people are involved. But obviously for us, as players, it makes you apprehensive as you don’t know what to expect. The fact you haven’t spoken to any of the coaches makes it more difficult. Chris Robshaw [Brown’s England captain and his team-mate at Harlequins] has met Eddie but that’s it. So you don’t know what they want from you personally. You don’t even know how they want the team to play. It definitely creates a bit of apprehension.”
The likelihood is Brown will be the first name listed. But being high up the alphabetical order will not dilute the intensity of competition he faces with Alex Goode of Saracens – in a battle that showcased the skills of both full-backs last Saturday as Brown and Harlequins just shaded a tight contest at the top of the Premiership.
Now he has admitted his undertow of anxiety, mingled with the exhilarating prospect of playing for a hard-nosed Australian coach who might transform England, Brown becomes more typically bullish. “As an England player, whatever your position, there’s always competition but the biggest competition is in my head. I put myself under immense pressure and set very high standards for myself both on and off the field. If I can keep doing that then I believe I can still be the No1 choice.”
There is a suspicion Jones harbours doubts about Goode’s lack of pace and that Anthony Watson may eventually be moved from wing to full-back. Yet it also seems likely Jones will relish Brown’s searing commitment.
Brown enjoys the odd quip, and talking about all kinds of sport, but he is essentially a very serious man. He listens closely when I point out Jones’ self-proclaimed attributes include him being relentlessly hard working while talking honestly and often spikily. The full-back then grins at the suggestion it almost sounds as if I could be talking about Brown himself.
“Hopefully he’ll like those traits in someone else – because that’s what I bring. I think he’ll say I’ve done that over the last three years at international level. So hopefully he will like that but it will be good to meet him and see what he thinks I can do to get better as a player. To see what he likes and what he wants me to work on. All those kind of basic things that a good coach passes on to a player. Eddie comes with a brilliant track record – from taking Australia to the final in 2003 to what he did most recently with Japan. He also did good things with Saracens from what I hear.”
Jones’ back-up coaching team consists of three men who all have strong links with Saracens. Steve Borthwick, who will look after the forwards, captained the club for years, while Paul Gustard, whom Jones appointed as his defence coach, has just left Saracens. Ian Peel will combine his new position as Saracens’ forwards coach with the role of England’s scrummaging consultant.
Brown, a Quin to the core of his rugby soul, appears unfazed. “I have a lot of respect for Sarries. I also know Gussie [Gustard] is a quality coach. We had him as an England coach on that 2013 tour of Argentina. He was awesome – the boys loved him. I thought he was brilliant so I’m really pleased he’s back with England. I don’t really know Steve that well. He was my England captain in 2008 [when Brown made his Test debut] but I didn’t spend much time with him. But Eddie could definitely do some good things with these players. Fazz [Andy Farrell], Stuart [Lancaster], Catty [Mike Catt] and Wig [Graham Rowntree] did great work at England but we couldn’t go past that level. We should’ve gone for it in the World Cup but we didn’t. It bit us in the backside and we were out.”
There is no sense of Brown trying to cosy up too much to the new England coaching hierarchy because he resists a dogmatic suggestion that a change of personnel was essential after a disastrous tournament. “I’m not sure. It’s hard to say. They did a great job getting us to that level – even if we didn’t have a great World Cup or win the Six Nations. But they brought in young lads who deserved it and we beat New Zealand along the way and pushed them close in their backyard. When you’ve worked with people for four years you don’t want to see them lose their jobs but that’s the nature of sport. So we have to move on.”
Brown has said he can’t really consider any England players as team-mates until they address the series of damaging and anonymous leaks which followed the World Cup. The famously feisty 30 year old even suggested all trust had been broken – and could be restored only by a brutally honest squad meeting. Has he had any feedback from the players to his scathing comments?
“I think the general consensus is pretty much what I said – as far as I can make out. I haven’t tried to seek out anyone’s opinion but it was the right moment to be honest. I’m not one who is always looking to say things in the media but it was needed at that point – after the third or fourth leaked article came out with no one putting their name to it. It was time someone said something. Nothing has been said since then. So maybe it worked. The guys I’m close to seem happy with what I said.
“It would be hard if we didn’t clear the air but I am sure that will happen. I am sure whoever did it [leaked stories] now realises that. But it’ll get sorted out. We’re all big boys and we’re pulling in the same direction. We all want England to be successful and we’ll learn from it.”
Brown’s hurt is still palpable as he remembers how desolate he felt the night after England were knocked out by Australia. He eventually expressed his remorse on Twitter and stressed neither he nor any of his England team-mates had played well enough to match the support they had received.
“That was the start of the dark times,” he says. “I did that about five in the morning after the Australia game. I didn’t sleep much the following week. A couple of hours here and there but it wasn’t a good week. I definitely couldn’t get any sleep that first night. At 5am I had all these thoughts going on in my head so I thought I’d get it down and put it out there – and be honest. I always try to be that way.
“For the last game [a meaningless pool match] I was on the bench against Uruguay. I was disappointed I wasn’t playing but I saw Stuart’s point of view. I still thought I should have been playing but Alex had been working hard and he deserved a hit out in the World Cup. Fair enough. But [Lancaster] said: ‘Look, you’ll get a good 30-40 minutes.’ In the end I got 10 minutes. It didn’t really sit well with me which was upsetting – especially after all the hard work I’d put in over four years to get myself in that position. I didn’t think that was the right thing to do to me.”
Brown shrugs bleakly and then, suddenly, brightens. “When I got on the reception was unbelievable. I’ll never forget that. People were standing and applauding – just for me. I think it was acceptance and realising the hard work I’d put in. I also think the way I play sits well with people. I think it exemplifies what an English person should be. Never take a backward step, heart on your sleeve. Putting out everything you’ve got for the red rose. That’s what I try and do – along with most of the other guys.”
Did he watch the World Cup final after helping Quins beat Bath earlier that same afternoon? “No,” Brown grimaces. “We got a good win that day and most of the lads arranged to stay and watch the final in the Bath clubhouse. I dodged that. One of the staff members kindly took my car down to Bath and I drove back. I dashed off because I didn’t fancy watching that. It’s something I had dreamed of doing and we’d worked so desperately hard to be part of it. I didn’t want to sit around and watch it.”
Brown is loyal to Robshaw but does he believe a more abrasive character, such as Dylan Hartley, is likely to eventually become England’s long-term captain? “There are so many ways you can captain a team. You can do it the way Dylan does it – the way Danny Care does it, a happy-go-lucky chap who does a brilliant job at Quins. You could do it like Chris – who’s a bit quieter, maybe a more standoffish kind of guy, but we all still get on really well with Chris. Borthwick was very quiet. An introvert from what I can remember. It was a long time ago. But his style would be completely different. So there is no right or wrong way. And you never know. Chris might still be captain. As far as I am concerned he is still England captain because we’ve not been told anything different. Eddie Jones is not stupid. He’s experienced enough to know what he wants and I’m sure he’ll choose his captain once he’s picked his starting XV.”
The only real certainties for Brown are he will continue to pour his heart out in every rugby match he plays while looking forward to marrying Eliza this summer. Beyond his new long-term contact with Harlequins, Brown also hopes to be selected for the Lions next year and to play for England until the 2019 World Cup. “We’ve got the wedding date – July the 9th – and my ambitions are clear. If I can get another four years of international rugby under my belt it will be an amazing experience. That goes for a lot of the England guys. If we keep the majority of these players together we can really achieve good things. But, yeah, it will be a relief to get this first squad announcement out of the way and to meet Eddie Jones at last.”
