'I don't get it': Mike Brown's take on shock England omission

Mike Brown, England’s most-capped fullback, has described Ollie Hassell-Collins’ omission from the England squad to tour Argentina and USA this summer as “mental,” adding, “I don’t get it at all.’

Hassell-Collins and fellow Tigers wing, Adam Radwan, who have both been capped before, can count themselves unfortunate not to make the trip, given the impact they have made at their club this season.

Brown, who is retiring at the end of the season, believes the fact that Radwan moved in mid-season from Newcastle to Leicester might have counted against him, but he cannot fathom out what Hassell-Collins, the leading try-scorer in the Gallagher Premiership, has done wrong.

“It’s mental, I don’t get it at all,” said Brown, whose 280 Premiership appearances put him fourth on the all-time list. “I don’t know what more Ollie Hassell-Collins can do; I can’t speak highly enough about him.

“I love Richard Wigglesworth, so I am not sitting here bagging their selection or anything like that; they’ll have their own reasons, and for what it is worth, I think Richard Wigglesworth is going to be an incredible head coach one day. Steve (Borthwick), I had as a head coach, so I am not bagging either of them. But I can’t understand why Ollie Hassell-Collins is not in there. There is no other winger in England doing what he has done this year in the Premiership.

“He is the Premiership top try-scorer (12), so he is obviously a finisher. But look at his all-round game, he is unbelievable under the high ball; he is a great left-foot kicking option; his defence has been unbelievable this year; he is a big old unit. So I can’t believe that he is not in there, with the full set of skills he has got and the finishing ability he has got.”

Brown added: Radders is different, he joined late on, but he has got such a point of difference. He could, again, be in there in that selection mix, maybe because he has just joined, he hasn’t got in there. But he has got to be in there soon because no one can do what he can do, his running with the ball, his speed, his power and athletic ability and he’s adding the other bits of his game here – his positioning, his kicking game, and high balls, which maybe hadn’t quite developed at Newcaste, where he just had that raw ability.

“Both of them have X Factor, and for me, I don’t see any others, apart from the Exeter young lad (Paul Brown-Bampoe), who have that.”

Hassell-Collins won his two England caps just over two years ago, against Scotland and Italy in the 2023 Six Nations, while Radwan won the last of his two caps in 2021.