By Chris Bailey
HARLEQUINS Mike Brown admits he is still getting used to the increased attention on him this year after being named Aviva Premiership Rugby Player of the Season on Thursday night.
It has been certainly a season to remember for the 28-year-old full-back, breaking through for both club and country.
England’s Man of the Autumn international, he went on to scoop the 2014 Six Nations Player of the Championship after scoring four tries in five matches to help the Red Rose finish second.
Such level of performances have also been mirrored in the Aviva Premiership, including scoring his side’s first try against Bath last weekend as Quins kept their title hopes alive by claiming the final play-off spot.
It all resulted in yet another award as he beat Vereniki Goneva, Samu Manoa, Chris Pennell, Jacques Burger and Dan Braid to take the Player of the Season award at the Aviva Premiership Awards at the London Hilton.
There was no hint of the plaudits going to the head of the man of the moment however, with Brown also credit the work of his teammates.
“It’s been a great season for me, I’ve really enjoyed my time on the field for both club and country,” he said.
“It’s a bit strange to think about the attention I’ve been getting, because all I’ve been doing is continue to work hard on the training field and put performances in to win games.
“Nothing’s changed from the last few years, for myself it’s all been about preparation and making sure I’ve been prepared when I’ve had that opportunity – I think I was and that’s shown in my performances.
“It’s not just about me but the team as well. It’s great to win individual awards but you can’t do that without the players around you.
“I’ve got people like Nick Easter around me who also won a couple of awards which shows just how much quality we have.
“Then we’ve got players like Danny Care, Chris Robshaw, and they help me by putting me in great positions to do what I can do to the best of my ability.”
Brown, who made his Aviva Premiership debut against London Irish in September 2006, could yet add another trophy to this season’s collection with Quins taking on fellow semi-finalists Saracens today.
The winger won the title with Quins two years ago and Brown believes they are timing their run nicely.
“It did take us a while to get going this season, to beat Bath when we needed to and get into the playoffs, showed what we can do,” he added.
“We left it late and that’s something we wanted to avoid, but we got there and hopefully there will be many more good times to come.
“With Quins, we are still playing a great style of rugby and even though we’ve had some tough times we’ve come out of it on the other side and are where we want to be. Hopefully now we can top it off by winning the Premiership.”
Be part of the world’s biggest club rugby final. Buy your tickets for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Final on 31 May at Twickenham from www.tickethour.co.uk/premierrugby
Photo courtesy of by padraic collins, with thanks.
