There is something of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the Oscar-winning film about a man who lived his life backwards, in the way Tom Brown’s rugby career has unfolded over the past 10 years.
The conventional trajectory would have a player come to prominence at a semi-professional club, cement his reputation on the sevens circuit and end up playing Test rugby and competing at the sharp end of top European competitions. Brown, 31, did all of those things – just in completely the wrong order.
“My career was maybe flipped on its head,” Brown says, reflecting on his passage from tyro star full back in the Edinburgh side that reached the semi-final of the Heineken Cup in 2012 and coming off the bench to help Scotland beat Australia on their own patch the same year to the point where, after a couple of seasons of international sevens, he is now playing part-time for Boroughmuir Bears in the FOSROC Super6.
How the mighty fall? Far from it. The newly married Brown is one of those upbeat characters who restores your faith in rugby with his clear love of the game and his complete lack of self-pity over the various setbacks — injuries, coaching whims, global pandemics — the game has dealt him.
In keeping with the Benjamin Button theme, we can wind the clock back to the autumn of 2011 when, with Edinburgh shorn of players away with Scotland at the World Cup in New Zealand, Brown, Dave Denton and Matt Scott made breakthroughs with the capital side. Denton and Scott went on to play in the Six Nations that season and Brown was then called up to face the Wallabies on the summer tour, but while the two others accrued double-digit caps over the next few years, the back-three man never played another Test.
He came frustratingly close, was named in a few squads, but injuries had a habit of kicking in at exactly the wrong moments. But again, no complaints. “I picked up a fair share and they always came at rotten times, just when I was picking up form or being involved in squads,” he says.
“Maybe having more time in the club game before moving up would have benefited me, but looking back to 2012 I wouldn’t change anything. That Heineken cup semi-final in Dublin [Ulster beat Edinburgh 22-19] is one of my fondest memories. And then there was the cap against Australia as well. Nobody can ever take that away from me. Of course I would have loved to have had more caps, but it wasn’t to be.”
As Brown established himself as Edinburgh’s first-choice full back, Chris Paterson faded out of the picture. But Brown would subsequently drop down the pecking order as Blair Kinghorn became the favoured son around five years ago. The rise of Kinghorn also coincided with the arrival of Richard Cockerill.
Brown has only unhappy memories of his two years under the former England hooker. “It was a difficult time,” he explains. “I felt I was labelled as a certain kind of player and it was very difficult to change that mindset. In [Cockerill’s] first year I had also done my hamstring and that was a season-ender. I found it hard to get back from that injury.
“I’ve been in professional sport long enough to know that it’s brutal. But there is also a human side of things, a way of doing things, and I felt that Edinburgh lost that under Cockerill. I had grown up watching the club, had put my body on the line for it over so many years and would run through brick walls for it, but it became hard to find motivation.
“They haven’t played a game yet, but knowing a lot of the guys, they are in a much better place under Mike Blair. I’m an Edinburgh Rugby fan again, which is great because I had lost that for a few years.”
When times were tough at Edinburgh, Brown found solace in the skies. Literally. Like his friend and team-mate Stuart McInally, he took flying lessons and obtained his private pilot’s licence. He is now studying to gain his commercial licence, with the aim of making aviation his full-time career.
Just not quite yet. When Brown was released by Edinburgh in 2019 he was taken on by Scotland sevens, with a two-year contract. Things went well and he enjoyed the experience of the world circuit, but when Covid struck last year the whole episode came to a juddering halt. At least he got back into action when he was brought into the provisional GB Olympics squad, but he missed out on a trip to Tokyo when the final squad was named.
“We had a group of 20 and we went to play in a tournament in Dublin. I was massively grateful for that after a really tough year. Guys were competing to go to the Olympics, whereas I was realistically looking at it just as an opportunity to be involved in the group.”
By now Brown’s thoughts were switching towards life in the cockpit, but he felt he still had “something left in the tank” as far as rugby was concerned. A few months ago he was approached by Graham Shiel, the former Scotland centre and national sevens coach who had taken over as head coach at Meggetland. Shiel made an offer that would allow Brown to play for the club and continue his flying studies as well.
“There is a reason I never announced my retirement as I felt I still had something to give. I started having conversations with Boroughmuir around March or April, learned more and more about Super6 and the upcoming season, and realised it would work out really well with the rest of my schedule.
“Going from 15 years of full-time rugby to no rugby at all would have been really difficult for me. Having the opportunity to do some part-time stuff and taper off while I have a focus on other things as well is giving me that time.”
Scotland’s sevens programme is on ice for the moment, but is certain to be resurrected in some form ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and a World Cup in Cape Town. “I would be lying if I didn’t say those things are on my radar as goals,” he says.
The Super6 had a troubled and controversial inception, but after a handful of games Brown is enthusiastic. “It’s what Scottish rugby has needed for many years,” he says. “We’ve needed to bridge the gap between professional and amateur club rugby and this is getting there.”
After experiencing most of the game’s highs and lows, what life lessons can he pass on? “I would advise any professional player, whether a young one in the academy or getting to the later stages of a career to take any opportunity to do a course or have interests outside rugby,” he says.
“I’m working for a charity called Switch The Play who specialise in athletes transitioning out of sport. I work with their advisory board as a volunteer to use my experience and to help athletes across all sports to transition smoothly. It’s something I am very passionate about.
“Also, I was never the biggest or the strongest or fastest player, but I’ve had a long career because I put in the hard work. And I always put the team first. If you are going to succeed in rugby you have to realise it is not about individuals. It’s about the team. Attitude goes a long way.”