Saracens culture is king for Kelly
PAUL REES talks to coach Kelly Brown about the special values at Saracens
Once a Saracen, always a Saracen. Kelly Brown spent the last seven years of his playing career at the club and moved into coaching there immediately after retiring only to take up a position at Glasgow in 2020.
Within a year, he was back at Saracens as an assistant coach, one of a number of former players on the club’s management roster, evoking the days of the Boot Room at Anfield when Liverpool’s traditions were handed down from generation to generation.
“This is a club which likes to keep people,” said Brown, the former Scotland back rower who is in charge of Sarries’ Premiership Cup campaign. “When I finished playing, I started working in the academy here and it is important that the guys coming through understand the culture of Saracens and what is expected of them.
“The academy has always been incredibly important to us and it is well resourced. You only have to look at the class of 2008 which included Owen Farrell, George Kruis and Jamie George. The current crop are really good and the U18s are strong.
“The Premiership Cup is important because it is a chance for players to pull on the strip and play for Saracens. Playing for loan clubs is an important part of their development and some of them find themselves up against men for the first time, but our culture is a massive part of everything.
“We speak to guys in the junior academy who are 15, 16 and 17 about the Saracens way and the club’s values and when they get their chance, they have the awareness of what is expected of them and the chance to shape our future. We are excited to see who will kick on.
“A number of the England stars in our team started in the Premiership Cup, like Maro Itoje, who captained the team when he was 19. A year after that he was playing for England which shows it is a really good pathway. It gives players the opportunity to show the senior coaches that they are ready to take the next step and get into the first team as soon as they can.”
Brown is one of a number of former players coaching at Saracens. Adam Powell, Kevin
Sorrell and James Tirrell are others while the former Argentina prop Juan Figallo, who retired from playing last year after six years at Saracens, became the academy and women’s forwards coach this summer.
“Coaching is brilliant, but it is crazy how fast the time goes,” said Brown. “I cannot believe it is four years since I played. I still think I could do it, although I suspect once I got into a maul I would realise it was not for me.
“There are a number of outstanding coaches here for me to learn off. I am relatively young and want to keep improving. This is a brilliant club which cares about its players, people and staff. You feel that every day.
“I want to become the best coach I possibly can be. I am in the right place that will help me achieve that. We like to keep Saracens people in the club if we can. When I was coming to the end of my playing career, there was an opportunity with the junior academy and that is where I started learning.”
Brown was delighted to watch Scotland defeat Australia for the third successive match last weekend and believes that under head coach Gregor Townsend they have become Six Nations contenders, and more.
“What pleased me the most about that victory was everyone expected it would be a free-flowing game with the ball thrown around and 50-70 points would be scored,” he said. “In the end it was a bit of a grind and Scotland managed to find a way to win.
“The players who went on the Lions tour and mixed with the best in the four home nations have clearly had a massive lift in terms of confidence. The disappointment of the last World Cup has been forgotten and this is a Scottish team that looks to be going places. It will be exciting to see what happens.”
“The academy has always been incredibly important to us and it is well resourced”