Mike Brown talks to Sky Sports about England's Six Nations heartache last year, competition for places moving forward and how he's "desperate" to play in a World Cup...
Thursday 30 January 2014 17:22, UK
He may have been named England's QBE Man of the Series after last year's autumn internationals, but Mike Brown knows he can take nothing for granted.
"I haven't played much on the wing, but it was a great confidence booster from Stuart to put me in that role when I hadn't played there much," he said. "It showed that he wanted to get me on the field. I think I did a reasonable job, but I was obviously really keen to play full-back. I managed to get to do that, and showed what I can do there as well." It seemed the Quins man could be part of a grand-slam winning team, only for Wales to scupper those hopes in spectacular fashion. Not only did the 30-3 defeat in Cardiff deny Lancaster's troops a clean sweep, it also saw them miss out on the title. "The last couple of Six Nations we've failed at the final hurdle, we've not come away with what we wanted to achieve," Brown admitted. "Hopefully we can learn and change that to the right result this time. "We were massively disappointed with that result (in Wales). The first half was quite close, but the second half they were brilliant. They did a job on us. "We are on a journey in this squad - part of that journey is about winning things like the Six Nations. That will be a massive confidence booster. You can learn so much from winning competitions. It would be great for our journey towards the 2015 World Cup."