Browne lifts lid on Brive turbulence
The French Top 14 outfit have struggled to escape the ‘crisis club’ moniker after a horror end to 2010, which saw forwards coach Christophe Laussucq sacked, before head coach Ugo Mola requested the backing of the players to continue in his post.
Conflicting reports of the players’ decision added to the misery, coming against the backdrop a relegation battle and the unwanted attention of French rugby’s financial watchdog, the DNACG.
“It really has been the most difficult year of my professional career, we’ve been through the mill as a group of players,” said Galway native Browne.
Browne, who lined out for Connacht and Northampton before his move to Brive in 2008, added: “I don’t think a group of players should be ever put in that position. It’s our job to play rugby and train during the week, it’s not our job to pick and choose if we want a coach here or not, that’s for the higher powers in the club (to decide). But that was the decision we were given at the time, and it was totally unfair.
“It was said when the players had their meeting that nobody was comfortable making the decision, but we were doing what we were asked to do. There were other things going on; December was a horrible month. We had a forwards coach fired, totally out of the blue, then we had the whole crisis after we lost to Agen, the coach asking if he had the support of the group.
“Then we were all asked to take a salary cut as well — all in the one month. It was four really difficult weeks, as you can imagine, all around Christmas time as well. It’s something I hope I never have to go through again, but I hope I’ve learned something from it.”
Despite the off-field issues, Browne — who is out of contract at the end of the current playing season — says he has “very fond memories” of his stay in central France, where he is now a vital cog in a Brive side hoping to add to Munster’s European woes. Somewhat ominously, he explains that the scrum — an area Munster have struggled in at times this term — is the focal point of their effort.
“We’re a typical French team, typically inconsistent!” he laughs. “We obviously try to impose our selves up front generally, and we have what we think is a decent scrum, so we like to try (to) get a good platform off that.
“We do an awful lot of live scrum stuff in training; before I came to France, I’d never done anything near the amount we do here. You could end up doing close to 40 or 50 scrums in the live session on a Tuesday.
“The French league is full of very good scrums, so you really need to be on top of your game to survive.
Former Ireland U21 representative Browne says the prospect of the two-time European champions coming to town has captured the imagination in Brive, but he admits Munster’s bank of winning experience abroad will stand to them.
“They’re not going to find anything they haven’t seen before,” he admitted. “They’ve come away with great wins in France before. But it’s typically what they will have experienced; it’ll be that little bit hostile, it’s quite a friendly place but come the day of the game, the fans do try get on the opposition team’s back, and maybe the ref’s back a bit as well! “But Munster are so experienced, so I can’t see them getting a rude awakening in any way. It’ll be par for the course in terms of what they’re used to.”
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