Exclusive:'Leaving my comfort zone': Ex-Scotland hooker on starting afresh in rebranded Champ 'proving ground'

It is a fresh start for the former Scotland hooker who has joined Ealing Trailfinders, the ambitious London-based club, who won the Championship last season but were denied entry to the top flight.

More on that later. For now, Brown is adjusting to a new challenge in a different rugby ecosystem and his first permanent gig as a full-time coach. His role with Ealing encompasses the scrum, contact area and assisting with the attack and they take on Bedford Blues at Goldington Road on Saturday on the opening weekend of the rebranded Champ Rugby season.

He has relocated his family to London and, for the first time in his professional career, has left the Scottish rugby bubble.

“It's different, obviously, and I'm enjoying it,” he says. “I just wanted to get out of Scotland and, not reinvent myself, but prove myself in a different environment with people that I didn't really know, kind of upskill myself; go and coach and upskill other people too. The facilities and players down here are brilliant, there are lots of really new ideas and it’s a good challenge. So it's been a great couple of months.”

Keeping in contact with Franco

Brown, 36, called time on his playing career at the end of the 2023-24 season. There wasn’t much he didn’t achieve, winning 61 Scotland caps, captaining his country, playing at two World Cups and helping Glasgow Warriors become the first Scottish pro side to win a major honour when they clinched the Pro12 in 2014. A serious knee injury robbed him of the chance to play in Glasgow’ URC-winning campaign in his final season but he used the time to take his first tentative steps into coaching.

He has worked with the Watsonians Super Series side, the Glasgow Warriors’ women’s team and was a consultant coach for Scotland Women during last season’s autumn internationals. He says that the opportunity with Ealing appealed because it took him out of his “comfort zone”. And having played under the likes of Gregor Townsend, Franco Smith and Dave Rennie, there has been plenty of source material to draw from. He returned to Scotstoun recently with Ealing attack coach David Johnston to watch Smith put on a session and he keeps in regular contact with the Warriors head coach and his assistant, Carolan.

“I played my whole career in Scotland, not because I didn't want to move, just because I never really felt like the right opportunity came up at the right time," says Brown. "I almost moved to Clermont halfway through my time at Glasgow and I just didn't feel it was quite right.

“I've never been one that wanted to move to a club just for money or anything like that. I had to be in the right environment and the right club and the right place to stress me and improve me. I just felt like going into coaching, I just didn't want to be in Scotland my whole career, surrounded by a lot of the same ideas, a lot of the same people. I really wanted to get out of my comfort zone and go really stress myself and test myself and learn from different people.

Learning from from the best

“I was so lucky at Glasgow to have the experience of different coaches; there was Gregor, obviously, Matt Taylor came in, then we had Dave Rennie, Jason O'Halloran, Franco, Nigel Carolan. So we had lots of different influences and ideas that actually came to us rather than having to go and seek them.

“I like learning from different people and I like learning new things, the challenges that change our perspective. I think it makes you a better person as a coach. So the opportunity was the right one.

“I want to just go and fill my boots as much as possible and try to learn and develop and get as many fresh ideas as possible while I can.”

Early impressions have been favourable. Ealing have added URC experience in the form of Rory Scannell and Conor Oliver from Munster and Connacht, respectively, and there is a handful of Scots at the club.

Scots talent at Ealing

Centre Geordie Gwynn and back-rower Josh Taylor are both former Scotland Under-20 internationals and prop Adam Nicol was in the Glasgow Warriors academy before moving to England. Richie Simpson, another ex-Glasgow and Scotland U20 cap, is also in the Ealing squad but currently injured.

“There are more than a few Scots spread around the Championship and it's a definite opportunity for young players who perhaps don't get the chance due to the lack of playing opportunities with only two professional clubs in Scotland. It's an excellent place to come and learn your trade, particularly for forwards.

“There's a lot of real high set-piece IQ at the top end of the Championship around scrum and lineout which I probably didn't appreciate until I came down here. From a knowledge point of view around detail at set-piece, it probably far outstrips where our younger guys are in Glasgow and Edinburgh. And they pick it up as soon as they get into the senior team so at the age of 18, 19, 20 or 21 their ability to run lineouts to see spaces to be bold enough to call other people out on their detail is impressive.”

Denied entry to top flight

The rebranded Champ has been expanded with 14 teams vying for the six play-off places which might - and you have to stress the “might” - lead to promotion to the Prem (also rebranded with a shorter name).

Ealing’s title win last season was their second in a row but they were again denied entry to the top flight, with the RFU deciding that they didn’t meet the requirements around ground capacity and safety compliance. They go again this season and Brown thinks their main challenge will come from Bedford, Coventry and a revived Worcester Warriors who return to the fray after a period of administration.

Assuming all relevant criteria are met, whoever comes out on top of the Champ play-offs will then have to face a promotion-relegation decider against the bottom team in the Prem. The English top-flight has become a closed shop in recent years and the financial turmoil that claimed not just Worcester but also Wasps and London Irish and has led to the drawbridge being pulled up.

Brown can see the logic but knows there has to be a route for teams to progress.

“There has to be a vehicle for ambitious clubs that have the money and the support to be able to come into your league and prove it. I think we'd all agree that a 10-team top flight is not a competitive league. Whether the prospect of something like R360 on the horizon is also spooking everyone, I don't really know. At the minute, there's plans for a relegation-promotion match at the end of the season. Our target is just to start well, be in the play-offs at the end of the season, win the league, and whatever comes after that comes after that.”

In the meantime, Brown is enjoying London life with his wife Jen and their two young sons.

“I think we were always really clear that if we were going to move away we were always going to do it together as a family,” he says. “My family's my number one priority and being able to bring them down with me is the only way that this would work. And it's a great adventure for us.”

It's a new chapter and Brown is ready to prove himself all over again.