Legendary Scotland and Lions coach Jim Telfer famously used to flog his players in training to get them battle-hardened for the demands of Test match rugby.
The days of endless scrummaging practice and ferocious rucking sessions leading up to a game are a thing of the past, so what does a training week look like for a modern-day player ahead of a Six Nations opener?
“Monday’s usually quite light, and then Tuesday and Wednesday will be heavy days,” Brown explained. “Then it’s just nice and light towards the end of the week.
“But from a psychological point of view, it will completely switch. There’ll be lots of learning at the start of the week. Then as you taper down your training and you get more time off your feet, then the anticipation towards gameday builds.”
Whereas those outside the inner sanctum only discover the matchday squad later in the week, players get a sense of who has got the nod days before.
“Normally on a Monday, there’d be a walkthrough and you tend to get bibs handed out to those that are in the team,” Brown said. “So you can kind of figure it out then.
“Officially on a Tuesday morning, there’s usually a team presentation. Then at the end of that, there’ll be a little video that goes up with the 23 on it and then a little round of applause, some handshakes and pats on the back.
“In every team, most people call it Test Match Tuesday. So normally after the team has been announced, there’s then a bit of full contact through either units or rugby sessions and Test Match Tuesday comes out.
“That’s your opportunity to lay a marker down, say that you should have been picked, or have a cheap dig. There’s always a little bit of friction.”
