Co-captain Brown eager to repay faith

FRASER BROWN has vowed to repay the faith Glasgow Warriors showed in him when resurrecting his career almost 10 years ago in his new role as club co-captain.

The 31-year-old hooker started out in professional rugby with Edinburgh, but bad luck with injuries led to him being released by the capital side without playing a competitive game and it looked like his career might be over before it had really got going.

Then Warriors stepped in to offer another shot at the pro game, and he has hardly looked back. Now, with 50 Scotland caps to his name, and 98 appearances for the Warriors, he is one of the most experienced and respected players in either squad, and was a natural choice to join Ryan Wilson as co-captain at Glasgow this year following the departure over the summer of Callum Gibbins.

“If it wasn’t for Glasgow, and Gregor [Townsend] and Shade [Munro], the coaches there at the time, then I probably wouldn’t have a career right now and I wouldn’t have played however many times it is for Glasgow and Scotland,” he reflects. “I’m hugely indebted to what they’ve allowed me to do by giving me the opportunity of coming back into professional rugby, so that love and loyalty to the club is huge.

“To be in a position where I can share some leadership duties with Ryan is obviously a pretty big honour, and something I’m looking forward to over the next couple of weeks, and then the coming season.”

Brown is now working under the third head coach of his time at Glasgow, with Danny Wilson replacing Dave Rennie during the summer, and he believes that the change in management can improve his game.

“Every time you get new coaches in, they add different bits and pieces to your game, so if you can retain those then you’ll improve,” he said.