Rugby fires me up but I’m cool and calm at home
THE TWO SIDES OF ENGLAND’S MIKE BROWN
THERE are two Mike Browns, two diverse characters. There is the person and the player. The father-to-be and the full back. Mr Happy at home and Mr Angry on the field.
Today, his professional persona will be on show at Twickenham — intense and competitive, snarling and confrontational when required.
He will be there on behalf of Harlequins for their Aviva Premiership opener against London Irish but he already has his sights on returning there with England, defending his status as the country’s premier No 15.
On Monday, the veteran of 62 Tests turns 32 but has no intention of tamely surrendering his place in the national team, despite the clamour for various bright young things to be given a chance to take over the full back position.
Eddie Jones is prepared to experiment with Elliot Daly, Anthony Watson or Harry Mallinder but Brown is one of the stalwarts of his so-far glorious England regime and the head coach joked recently: ‘Mike Brown will never retire!’
He certainly will not quit any time soon. In fact, he is bemused by some of the ageist attitudes in sport which dictate that turning 30 is the end of the line.
‘As soon as you get to 30 people say, “That’s it, you’re done”,’ said Brown. ‘Look at Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He had a career-ending injury — or that’s what people said — but he is looking in pretty good shape to me. That’s just in football.
‘Floyd Mayweather did all right for an old boy the other night, too! If you’ve looked after your body and you’re still improving, why not keep going?’
In rugby mode, Brown is still a desperate, driven character but there is another side; another him — far removed from the version seen in either the colours of Harlequins or England.
In this role, change is afoot, with parenthood beckoning as a step into the unknown.
Brown’s wife, Eliza, is due to give birth to their son in about 10 days’ time and he admitted: ‘I’m a bit excited — and a bit apprehensive, too.
‘I haven’t got any babies or small children in my family so I’ve not really had that experience. I can’t really imagine myself with a baby but I’m sure I’ll be fine.
‘I’ve still got that fire and drive in me which won’t go because I have a baby, but it will be nice to get home and have something else to think about. It might help me switch off, who knows? We’ll see.
‘The weird thing is that everyone thinks that in my everyday life I am how I am on the pitch. As soon as I’m in my own space, my own domain, I’m completely relaxed and happy. People may find that hard to believe but it’s true.
‘I’m not intense at home like I am on the pitch. My wife finds it strange, watching me play rugby. It’s like I am two different characters — Mike Brown the rugby player and Mike Brown in real life. You are playing a character. You are a rugby player. It’s not real life, is it? It’s only a game.
‘To be the best player I can be, I have to have that character. That puts me in the right frame of mind for the job. That’s what works for me but I’m not like that all day. I can’t imagine what I’d be like if I was that intense at home. I wouldn’t last very long!’ When Brown came home from Argentina in late June, after a stellar contribution to a superb 2-0 series win by a heavily- depleted England squad, Eliza was heavily pregnant and hoping for some supportive ‘TLC’ from her husband.
But after the strain of a long, gruelling season, his body and immune system could not deal with the shock of rest and relaxation.
‘We got home on the Tuesday and straight away I had an illness bug,’ he said. ‘I was in bed for the rest of the week. My wife and I were flying to Mykonos the following Sunday.
‘On the Saturday night I was feeling a bit better so thought I’d better start packing. I went to the garage to get my empty suitcase, bent down to pick it up and my back went into spasm! I had that for the next two weeks. I was fine all season then your body relaxes and things start going wrong.’
There will be precious little time for relaxing for the next nine and a half months.
Brown retains a burning ambition to reach the next World Cup in two years as Jones’s last line of defence. ‘Eddie has told me, “If I want somebody to come in and play a different way to you, I will pick that guy”,’ Brown said.
‘He has to try other people at some point but I’ve got belief in my ability to keep being selected. I am desperate to play for England and Eddie wants players like that.
‘Some people have to find that sort of desperation but it has always been in me. I wasn’t one of those who went to a rugby school and played through the age groups. I’ve never really had it easy.
‘That is what has made me the way I am and has kept the fire going inside me. It is still in there — and I’m not sure it will ever go.’
‘When our baby’s here it might help me switch off. . . we’ll see!’