Canterbury Warrior shows his class

BY TONY SMITH

Former Kiwis coach Frank Endacott believes Canterbury's Lewis Brown is a strong contender for the Warriors' player of the year and could go close to the Kiwis' Four Nations squad.

Backrower Brown, 23, had his breakthrough season in the National Rugby League competition last year in his rookie season with the Warriors.

But he has blossomed in 2010 to become one of the first names coach Ivan Cleary inks onto his team sheet each week and a major contributor in the Warriors' drive to the NRL playoffs.

The former Canterbury Bulls, Riccarton Knights and Marist-Western Suburbs player has played all but one of the Warriors' 25 games and has scored seven tries. He's averaging 76m per match with the ball in hand – but has carried more than 100m six times, including a season-high 170m against the Bulldogs. His tackle average is close to the 20 mark in a workaholic back row which also features defensive dynamos Micheal Luck and skipper Simon Mannering.

Belfast-bred Brown is looking for a big finish to the round-robin tonight, noting a win at the Parramatta Eels' western Sydney fortress would clinch the Warriors a home semifinal.

But he admits the Kiwis' jumper is a definite goal after getting a taste as part of the training squad last year.

Endacott, a former Warriors head coach, thinks the former Canterbury Bull is definitely making Kiwis coach Stephen Kearney sit up and take notice.

"I think Lewis Brown has had an exceptional year. He'll go very close to winning the Warriors' player of the year award, that's how good he's been going," Endacott says.

Kearney has talent to burn in the backrow division. Some of the slickest second rowers in the NRL hail from the so-called Shaky Isles.

But Endacott sees Brown as having all the skills to be an impact player off the interchange bench. "I would say he has an outside chance of making the Kiwis squad. He would be a valuable player to have on the bench for the Kiwis. He'd do as good, if not better a job, than some of the players they've had there in recent years."

Endacott says Brown is "a perfect example of a player who punches above his weight". He first encountered the former Papanui High School student in his Christchurch club days "when he was a young, feisty halfback who wouldn't take a backward step".

"If you'd asked me back in those days if he'd have gone on to be a first-grade backrower, I would have laughed. But I take my hat off to him. He's done the right thing by getting into the gym and working hard. He's muscled up great. He's not tall for a second rower but he makes up for that with his big heart. He's got courage and he's got ability and a fantastic attitude."

Brown also offers versatility – an attribute prized by Cleary, who pushed the Cantabrian out into the centres during in-game injury crises. The Warriors' coach mentioned Brown as an option at hooker (where he has played earlier in his career) while Aaron Heremaia and Ian Henderson were both nursing injuries a few rounds ago.

For his part, Brown is "loving wearing the No12 jumper at the moment. We seem to be forming a good combination with Simon Mannering and Micheal Luck and Jacob Lillyman, who's playing at lock at the moment while Lucky's out injured. Hopefully we can continue that for the final series."

Brown loves the back row. "That's my position and hopefully I continue to concentrate there. But if there are injuries I will be prepared to fill in wherever Ivan needs me. As long as I'm on the field, I'm happy."

He's certainly playing with a smile on his dial these days.

Brown credits "Ivan and Sponge" [Cleary and assistant coach Tony Iro] with taking his game to another level and bringing out talents "I didn't know I had".

As a rookie last year, Brown kept to the basics – making his tackles, taking the ball up and making sure he secured it in the tackle. There were few frills to his game.

This term, Cleary has encouraged him to unleash the passing skills he developed in his backline days. "I've got a lot more confidence in myself," Brown said. "That's really down to having a great coaching staff, who relate well and talk to our players."

Brown says the Warriors have developed "a quality programme" under Cleary, who has slowly built a sound foundation which should serve the club for years to come.

He agrees the Warriors have few headline-hogging names – apart from the big Beast himself, Manu Vatuvei. But "father figure" Cleary has instilled a team ethic which has morphed into a winning formula. "It feels like there's something special happening here."

Brown is happy on and off the field in Auckland but he hasn't forgotten his rugby league roots. "I'm enjoying myself here but I'm very close to my family down in Christchurch. I try to do them proud each time I take the field. They are the backbone of my sport."

He grew up in Belfast as a "leaguie" first and foremost but also played rugby union at former league legend Sonny Bill Williams' new club.

"I did put the Belfast Cobras jumper on and I still support the green and gold. When I go back to Christchurch, I like to go down to the Belfast clubrooms. Belfast's still my home place."

Brown hopes a good finals run for the Warriors will catapult him into Kiwis contention. "I tasted it last year through being in the training squad and if we go well in the finals, I might be able to pull on a black jumper in the near future."

That would fulfil a dream first visualised back in Belfast. "Most kids want to be an All Black, but all I wanted growing up was to be a Kiwi."

He's not getting too far ahead of himself – he knows there are some slippery Eels to subdue first, on a day Parramatta farewell inspirational club and Kiwis captain Nathan Cayless "and a couple of blokes [Krisnan Inu and Feleti Mateo] who are coming to us next year".

But NRL grand final date – October 3 – is also Lewis Brown's 24th birthday. Making the grand final – and winning the club's first title in their 16th first-grade season – would, he agreed, "be a great birthday present".

- © Fairfax NZ News