Gregor Brown’s versatility is a major asset for club and country with the Glasgow Warriors star shining on his first Six Nations start for Scotland against France on Saturday.
Brown was arguably Scotland’s best performer despite defeat in Paris with Gregor Townsend labelling him "outstanding".
The 23-year-old was handed his chance to impress in the second row and Brown added the dynamism from lock that had been badly missing throughout the championship.
The Aberdonian, however, is primarily a flanker and has played the majority of his Glasgow Warriors career at back-row. Scotland are blessed with a plethora of options in the back-row and Brown’s prospects of starting regularly may be at lock but he now feels confident in either role.
“I kind of feel like I can play both now,” he admitted.
“You know I obviously played flanker most of my professional career up until the last couple years and for me I'm just focusing on the positives of it.
"I can hopefully kind of show that I’m someone that can play in both those positions and hopefully that adds value to me being involved. I'd say like the past years the learning curve has been unreal in the second row and I still feel like I can do a job in the back row if needed and hopefully at some point.”
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Jonny Gray and Grant Gilchrist started four of the five Six Nations fixtures together at lock but there’s an abundance of talented Glasgow second-rows that missed out due to injury - Scott Cummings, Max Williamson and Jare Oguntibeju.
“We're really really lucky at Glasgow with lots of young second rows coming through,” Brown added.
“Then we've still got Scotty there and up until recently we had Richie Gray. He was huge to learn off of so it's definitely great environments kind of pushing each other and learning as we go and yeah hopefully that kind of just continues for the rest of the season.”
Brown’s first Six Nations start at the Stade de France was special for several reasons, including lining up alongside his cousin, Blair Kinghorn.
“Yeah it was my first start with Blair,” said Brown.
“It’s been really special. It's obviously special for both of us playing together but probably more so our family. Both our mums saw us both on the pitch at the same time. Being the younger cousin it's something that I was kind of aiming for and for that to come true it has been very special.
“My mum, dad and my girlfriend Amy were here so you know it's been massive for them.
"They came out to Twickenham and came out here. I'm obviously playing for them because they're a big reason why I want to play well and seeing them after the game and that's really special.”
