Innovative laws add colour to Brown's game
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Wayne Smith | March 18, 2008
AT first glance, a meeting of Six Nations representatives with the IRB's laws project group in London at the end of the month should have nothing at all to do with Western Force number eight Richard Brown.
In fact, just the opposite. What comes out of that summit could well determine how quickly Brown makes his way into the Australian side.
The only item on the agenda is the experimental law variations, which the northern hemisphere countries are viewing with great suspicion.
If they veto a trial of the laws in the November Tests against the Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks, then it may well influence the southern hemisphere superpowers to play this year's Tri-Nations series under the old laws rather than confuse their own players by having them constantly chop and change from one set of regulations to another.
That's where Brown's Test chances could take a hit. While there is little doubt the athletic Force backrower could shine no matter which rule book the referees are whistling from, he has been a spectacular success under the new laws. If the Tri-Nations series is played under the experimental laws, Brown could emerge as a real point of difference for the Wallabies.
"In the first month of Super 14, he has been one of the guys who has really put their hands up," said Test selector and forwards coach Michael Foley yesterday. "He has been very comfortable in the physical contact work inside of 10 (five-eighth) and just as comfortable in the ball playing, catch-pass game outside of 10."
In other words, Brown's got it all, the muscle to mix it with the most physical of the Springboks, the finesse to confound the cleverest of the All Blacks and the stamina to use both brain and brawn in even the fastest games played under the experimental laws.
Indeed, that was the recurring theme of the NZ commentators as the Force-Blues match built to its climax last weekend.
"The longer this game goes, the more dominant Richard Brown is becoming," Fox's Tony Johnson observed.
"Couldn't agree more," was Foley's assessment.
Brown is bemused and just a little alarmed that his name is being mentioned as a Wallabies contender. "A bit early for that, isn't it?" he asked drily yesterday. "Don't want to jinx it."
There's a lot of country directness about Brown, and not just in his ball-running. That's hardly surprisingly considering he grew up on the 4000-hectares Julia Creek cattle property that has been in his family for the past four generations. Indeed, he scarcely left it for the first dozen years of his life, doing all his primary education on School of the Air before starting Year 8 at Brisbane's Nudgee College. There, inescapably, he discovered rugby.
The Reds had first grab at him but, like so many other outstanding Queensland rookies, he slipped through their fingers and now is entrenched in a Force side that took a little while to work how where and how best to use him.
"I'm now in my third year of Super 14 but this year I'm getting regular game time," said Brown, giving his own guess on why 2008 has been a breakthrough.
"In the past couple of years I've been coming off the bench for Scott Fava at number eight or switching between six (blindside flanker) and seven (openside).
"When you're constantly swapping positions, you just can't get into a groove. Now I'm getting good game time and I had a head start on the ELVs by playing in the Australian Rugby Championship last year. It's been a combination of things."
And speaking of combinations, Brown is the common denominator in a couple of them. As a back-row unit, it would be hard to top the Force's Fava-David Pocock-Brown trio, while one of the real revelations is how well Brown has learned to link with Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell and the other members of the glittering Force backline.
Typically, Brown doesn't want to get ahead of himself. "Ah, if the Force slips off the pace and we don't play well against the Highlanders (on Saturday in Queenstown), everything changes."
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