Mike Brown and Leicester’s veterans show heart and soul has no age limit

P rofessional rugby is increasingly a numbers game. Pounds, euros, metres carried, kick percentages, set-piece efficiency. Some of it is useful information, some of it clutters the imagination. It is also worth keeping in mind that one of the greatest strengths of a top player cannot be fully measured. To borrow the old saying, it’s not the size of the dog that matters, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

You can, in other words, be the best athlete in the world, with the most chiselled physique and the best gym scores. And you can still be swept aside by the boundless competitiveness and inner drive of the insanely committed. Rarely will you see a better example than Mike Brown’s man-of-the-match performance for Leicester against Premiership leaders Saracens on Sunday.

For those who missed it, Brown was spectacularly good for a player whose last Premiership appearance was 11 months ago. He has not featured in an England training squad since 2019 but looked in rude health as he and Leicester enjoyed a rip-roaring afternoon. Rarely has a player on his debut forged such an instant bond with the Tigers supporters or displayed more on-field passion for the cause.

Which is why, as part of the narrative, we all duly jotted down the same old number. Brown is 37. Alongside him, as Leicester carved up Saracens in the first half, were Jimmy Gopperth (39) and Chris Ashton (35). England’s most-capped player, the 33-year-old Ben Youngs, almost qualified as a rookie by comparison. In the opposing backline was Alex Goode, Brown’s long-time rival for the national No 15 jersey, who remains the smartest of operators at the age of 35.

So much for the received wisdom that modern rugby is mostly a game for the under-30s. When we spoke