Kelly Brown: 'I was in a brilliant environment at Saracens - and I want to bring the good bits up to Glasgow'

The call of home is strong, even when you’re at one of the best clubs in the world. That’s certainly what Kelly Brown found when he received a call from Glasgow Warriors head coach Danny Wilson asking him to come back to be the contact coach at the club where he made 82 appearances before heading south to a decade of silverware at Saracens.

Although Saracens have hardly had their troubles to seek of late, Brown was still ridiculously content as part of one of the most professional coaching set-ups in world rugby, satisfied that he could be an integral part of an exciting rebuilding process. And then came the call.

“I’d been speaking to Danny because I’d done a bit of stuff with Scotland, and then I got a call from him – he said there was an opportunity and would I be keen?” says Brown. “Glasgow’s a club I know and love and hard as it was to leave Saracens I was very excited about the opportunity to come back to Scotland.

“I’ve got a lot of love for Sarries and was sad to leave. I’ve got a lot of good friends and it’s been an amazing 10 years. I was also sad to be leaving because they have an amazing opportunity now to build again. I’ve nothing but fond memories of my time there; it’s one of two clubs I love.”

But Brown has no intention of completely leaving Saracens behind. The playing culture created during their Premiership hegemony has left an indelible mark on him, an approach he plans to bring to Clydeside.

“I’ve been in a brilliant environment these last few years and in spite of everything that happened over the past year, Saracens is a club that does a lot of stuff right so I want to bring the good bits up to Glasgow, absolutely.

“The thing that amazed me the most when I went to Saracens was we never spoke about winning. We spoke about going and making memories and I thought that was a brilliant way to do it. If you make unbelievable memories you win games.

“But there’s no way I’m going to say, 'I’ve been at Saracens, I know all this stuff', because Glasgow is a club with a great culture and really good environment. I’m not coming in to try and change everything, but if there are little bits of pieces that I feel we can improve, then I’ll do it.”

After missing out on the Pro14 play-offs and losing not just coach Dave Rennie and captain Callum Gibbins, but also stars Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray to Exeter, there is a worrying whiff of stagnation, perhaps even decline, at Scotstoun. This season, with so many Test matches, Brown will need to bring the best out of the Warriors’ squad, but pronounces himself impressed with youngsters like scrum-half Jamie Dobie and openside Tom Gordon.

For Brown, the way to get the best out of the players at Scotstoun is through nurture, not nature. Rugby may be brutally physical, but the former flanker’s time at Saracens taught him that putting an arm round a player’s shoulder beats bawling him out.

“Saracens coach Mark McCall is one of the most competitive, driven men I’ve ever met, but he cares so much about players and staff, and if you match those two things up everyone wants to play for you. That’s one thing I learned in my time there,” adds Brown.

“The Saracens culture has evolved over the years, but ultimately it’s all about caring for people. A lot of people have this ethos to keep people keen, treat them mean. At Sarries it was the exact opposite. That’s certainly how I like to operate and it’s something I’ll definitely keep in the forefront of my mind at Glasgow.”

Who said nice guys come last?