Border Telegraph | Sport | Brown hopes not to play for the Rose too soon

Wednesday, 20th August, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 16th July, 2008 09:00

Brown hopes not to play for the Rose too soon

By Ally McGilvray

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SCOTLAND star Kelly Brown has revealed he doesn’t want to pull on a Melrose jersey next season.

The 26-year-old Glasgow Warriers flanker, who kicked off his career at the Greenyards, was allocated to his hometown club by the Scottish Rugby Union as part of an innovative scheme devised to ensure that fringe players involved with the country’s two professional teams have the opportunity for extra game time.

However, despite revealing his love for the yellow and black colours, the former Border Reiver explained he is concentrating on making an impact at the city side having just signed a new two-year contract following an impressive debut season.

Speaking to the Border Telegraph after returning to Melrose to coach local youngsters last week, Kelly said: “Obviously I would love to play for Melrose but if I do it would either mean I’ve been dropped or been injured -so, as much as I’m pleased to be allocated back here, hopefully I won’t be playing too much.

“I’ve been at Glasgow Warriers for a season now and I’ve just signed a new contract for another two years.

“I’m surrounded by a good bunch of boys and everything seems to be going well so hopefully we will build on that next year.”

The flanker, who has 26 international caps, was part of the first Scotland squad to beat Argentina on home-soil following their summer tour.

However, he returned to Melrose during a two-week break before starting pre-season training with Glasgow Warriors on Monday.

“I do miss the Borders because this is my home but I’m enjoying it in Glasgow and if I am successful through there then great,” Kelly said.

“I’ve just come back from tour (with Scotland in Argentina) and I’m having a couple of weeks off before I get back to training this week.”

He added: “I was just enjoying some spare time and thought I would come back and help out at my old club.”

The SRU has revealed that all 72 players contracted to Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh have been allocated a place with a team in next season’s Premiership Division One.

Many of the bigger names, such as Kelly, are unlikely to have any duties with their second club but it is envisaged that the plan should help the game in Scotland.

Melrose have also been allocated Scott Newlands, Geoff Cross, Mark Robertson, Kevin Tkachuk and Tim Barker.

And, as previously reported in the Border Telegraph, Gala favourite Chris Paterson has been allocated to arch-rivals Hawick.

amcgilvray@bordertelegraph.com

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