Ex-All Black calls on England to select 'devastating' Mike Brown
All Black Nick Evans believes Mike Brown has turned himself into an attacking force Eddie Jones must include in England’s World Cup squad in Japan despite the Harlequins full back having missed out on Six Nations action.
Brown is stuck on 72 caps having been dropped for England’s November tests with Elliot Daly at No.15 as England beat South Africa, Japan and Australia but lost to New Zealand. Despite being included in this year’s Six Nations squad, Brown was unused with Jones opting for Chris Ashton, Jack Nowell, Joe Cokanasiga, Henry Slade and Ben Te’o as the back three cover from the bench in the five championships matches.
Patently, Jones was looking for something different and that has seen Brown work to improve his attacking game to supplement the rock like defence and expertise under the high ball. As a result, Brown finished the regular Premiership season as the top offloading player in England and even made more yards in attack (1188) than Saracens Alex Goode (1167).
One of the sticks used by critics against Brown was his inability to link with his fellow backs, preferring to take contact and set up a ruck which makes the 37 offloads he delivered for Quins this season such a game changer for Evans, the club’s respected backs coach.
Evans, who is adamant Quins can still showcase even more of Brown’s attacking threat, said: “What separates Mike from others is his work in defence, under the high ball, the off-loading and the competitiveness we all know he has.
“I hope he goes because he deserves it and offers something different. In a World Cup that is what you may need. Mike is not just a defensive minded full back and I have never believed he was and I played with him for nearly 10 years. Fans and other coaches have pigeon holed him as that but off-loading is a strength in his game.
“He often beats the first tackler because he is slippery and can accelerate away through contact. We have been working to get him more involved in the wider channels and if you look at Elliot Daly and Anthony Watson you can see that Eddie Jones likes that kind of player with added pace.
“While Mike may not have that pace, he is one of the most devastating strike runners off set piece and I will hold my hand up and say that we haven’t used him as often as we should from scrums and line outs. He is such a strong ball carrier and runs great lines with subtle little changes.
“He is a champion bloke who wants to get the best out of himself and we have been working really hard on all aspects, particularly attacking play because that’s where the questions were coming. No one questions his ability under the high ball or as the last man in defence and for me he has been one of the players of the year for Quins. He has been a leader in the backs and all season Mike has been brilliant and that is credit to the work he has put in.”
Evans dismisses the argument that Brown should not be picked because he doesn’t offer the same attributes as rival full backs and there is considerable debate over Goode’s inability to break back into the test arena.
“They are different players and people say “oh, he doesn’t do this like Daly or Watson” but they don’t do what Mike does. It comes down to one man’s opinion and that is Eddie Jones and if he has a view of what he wants then it can be hard to sway that.”
Brown will celebrate his 34th Birthday on September 4 with England facing their opening Cup pool match with Tonga in Sapporo on September 22 followed by the a trip to Kobe to take on the USA just four days later. Brown has just eight replacement appearances in his 72 caps and four of his test were during England’s failed 2015 World Cup campaign where the team suffered the ignominy of failing to get out of their pool as the host nation.
England faced another “Pool of Death” four years ago on home soil and defeats to Wales and Australia destroyed their chances of glory and in Japan they take on France, Argentina, USA and Tonga.
A key indicator of where Brown figures will be the make-up of the England squad to face the Barbarians on 2 June . That squad – which will be overseen by Jim Mallinder not Jones – will be made up almost entirely of players who will miss out on World Cup training squad selection.
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
31 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
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