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Wayne Smith | April 14, 2009
Article from: The Australian
IT will not be the number on his back but whether the Western Force can create a happier workplace that will determine whether Wallabies' number eight Richard Brown re-signs with the Perth side or returns to Queensland.
Confirmation yesterday that All Blacks flanker Daniel Braid intends not to exercise the second year of his two-season deal with Queensland has made the recapture of Townsville-born, Julia Creek-raised Brown the Reds' No1 recruiting priority.
Brown might have played at number eight in all but the Paris Test on the Wallabies' spring tour after making his debut off the bench in the Bledisloe Cup clash in Brisbane last September, but the Reds are just as interested in him as Braid's replacement at openside flanker.
With another player, that could be a deal-killer. After all, Brown is the incumbent Test number eight, with the only real threat to his position coming from the man he will confront in Saturday's derby in Sydney, Waratahs battering ram Wycliff Palu.
But if he was to be used as a seven, Brown would find himself competing for a gold jersey next season against the likes of George Smith, current Force teammate David Pocock and, depending on what decision he makes in the coming weeks, possibly Phil Waugh.
But that is not how Brown is weighing up his decision.
"When I'm happy I play my best football and when I look back, I was happiest during the Australian Rugby Championship (in 2007) when I played seven and eight for the Perth Spirit," Brown said yesterday.
"It's pretty well known all the problems the Force have had and sometimes the strain and the tension surrounding the club doesn't make this the happiest workplace environment. So I'm not basing my decision on whether I go back to Queensland to play seven. I'm seeing how things are sorted out here at the Force.
Do the problems here get solved or do they remain? Wherever I am, I want to be happy."
Brown conceded he missed his family and friends in Queensland but insisted ultimately his decision would rest on what was best for his rugby.
Force chief executive Greg Harris yesterday quipped he was caught between the chicken and the egg and the domino theory as he attempted to retain Brown and the two other key Wallabies coming off contract, James O'Connor and Drew Mitchell.
"It's a bit of a waiting game at the moment," Harris said. "They're all asking what the other two blokes are doing."
Yet Brown insisted that his decision would not be swayed by whether Mitchell and O'Connor stayed or went.
"It would add a bit of confidence, I guess, but it's not going to be what influences me. But if this place (the Force) was not to be what I want it to be, if it wasn't constructive and I felt I wouldn't develop as a footballer, it wouldn't matter what the other guys decided."
O'Connor, meanwhile, will have one eye on the 2011 World Cup when he makes up his mind at the end of the Force's Super 14 campaign.
"For me, I'm not too much concerned about what the others (Mitchell and Brown) do," O'Connor said yesterday. "I want to be involved with good footballers, which I think I've got here.
"It will be a rugby decision about my future, especially leading into the World Cup. I want a good solid few seasons to prepare for that."
If O'Connor follows Matt Giteau to the Brumbies, he would be able to continue his rugby education at a steady pace, learning not just from Giteau but from the likes of Stirling Mortlock, Adam Ashley-Cooper and Tyrone Smith.
Conversely, he would hit the fast-forward button if he remained at the Force and found himself thrust into the playmaking five-eighth role as a Giteau substitute. That could be the making of the 18-year-old or it could see him saddled with too much responsibility too early.
Reds coach Phil Mooney won't be following former Wallabies boss John Connolly's advice to switch Digby Ioane back to the wing against the Lions at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
"We're happy with Digby at 13," said Mooney, dismissing the suggestion that the Reds had been over-using Ioane at outside centre. "It could be just that he works harder than most 13s."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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Originally Posted by fulvio sammut
Supporter" starring the #SeaOfBlue
backliners were missing, the coaching staff was the same really) ergo as most of them are leaving Brownie will stay - I hope
Was the wait worth it - Ya betta baby 
