Brown has spent more than 30 years in professional football, playing 650 league games before moving into coaching and management at Bolton, Derby, Hull and Preston.
“There are a lot of parallels with football clubs, but the first thing you notice here is the environment,” said Brown.
“It is disciplined, basic in a good way – I always think if you get the basics right then you get very good players – and honest.
“Richard Cockerill speaks very passionately about the team, not about individuals, and one of the things I will talk about coming out of here is that if you don't work hard you can forget about being a great player.”
Brown says he watched a lot of Rugby Union during his playing days at Halifax, despite the strength of the League code there, and had a helping hand from another former England hooker in understanding the game.
“Brian Moore came into the restaurant I owned and we got talking about rugby and the art of the scrum,” he says. “To my cost he showed me how it was done, with me at hooker, which wasn’t too pleasant!”
Brown has another reason to watch rugby closely, with nephew Joe Cain coming through the Tigers Academy as a promising second-rower and gaining first-team experience in the pre-season fixture in Jersey last weekend.
“Joe played football as a goalkeeper, he did well at cricket and then played rugby,” he says. “No one put any pressure on him and my sister and I were delighted when he made the decision for himself to play rugby. We’re very happy to see he’s doing well at Leicester. As they say, the hard work starts now.”
