When Mike Brown, the feisty England full-back, squared up to Brian O’Driscoll while England’s Six Nations Test against Ireland was hanging in the balance, the great Irishman looked nonplussed.
It seemed to be a fuss over nothing and O’Driscoll grinned. He might well have been making a point along the lines of: who exactly are you to be shoving me around, young man? What precisely have you done in the game?
Brown’s impertinence was probably a product of a boisterous personality and the confidence of knowing he is a central cog in a team on the rise.
If you are only as good as your last game, then Brown must be very good indeed.
As good a judge as Sir Ian McGeechan reckons Brown is more or less the best full-back in the sport on current form.
“Brown is as good as there is at 15,” the former British & Irish coach wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “And by that I mean in world terms, too. He compares favourably with anyone.”
Brown’s rise has been remarkable, given the fact he was nowhere near selection for the Lions last summer. If there had been a ream of injuries, he still would not have been considered.
Leigh Halfpenny, the Welshman, became a genuine star of the world game via that victorious Lions series in Australia.
He, though, will have a job proving he is even the best No 15 on the field when Wales face England at Twickenham on Sunday in the Six Nations.
pradley@thenational.ae
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