Dragons prop Brown is the ‘new’ Sinckler

DRAGONS tighthead Leon Brown has been backed to follow in the footsteps of England and British & Irish Lions tearaway Kyle Sinckler.

Sinckler, who has yet to start a Test for his country, made his mark on the international stage by taking on the All Blacks with the Lions earlier this year.

His explosive ball carrying and footballing ability – combined with a strong set-piece game – have marked Sinckler out as a special talent.

Brown is now being tipped to follow suit with Wales by Dragons forwards coach Ceri Jones, who worked with Sinckler at Harlequins and is now assistant to Bernard Jackman at Rodney Parade.

“If you look at Kyle, the things he can do around the field probably got him on the Lions tour and I’d put Leon in the same bracket with his contribution in that area,” said Jones.

“I think the hunger, the work rate, his carrying ability and his general attitude towards the game is very similar to Kyle’s. Obviously Leon’s also got to perform in the tight which I think he’s more than capable of doing. He is still learning in that department and that’s going to be a challenge for him because there’s a not a tighthead in the world that has it all his own way all the time.

“He has to learn to cope at that level and then go from coping to getting a dominance – that’s the next step for Leon.”

Despite the Dragons struggling at the start of the PRO14 season, Brown has impressed with his individual displays.

The performances of the former Wales U20 Grand Slam winner have already convinced Jones he will excel at international level.

“With Leon having come into the squad and gaining confidence every week he’s already shown glimpses of how good he could be,” added Jones.

“If you look at him when he started playing for Cross Keys, it took him a while to adapt to that level but it wasn’t long before he was really kicking on and I think it will be the same this time.”