Scotland head coach Bryan Easson admits it is “disappointing” to be losing forwards coach Fraser Brown after the Guinness Women’s Six Nations, but that he is speaking to “a couple of options” to replace him for the Rugby World Cup period.
Last July it was announced that, following Martin Haag’s departure, 35-year-old Brown would be joining the coaching set up on a consultancy basis as the forwards coach up to and during the WXV 2 tournament.
That went well and he is working with the national team during the ongoing Six Nations, but after the event the former hooker, who made 141 appearances for Glasgow Warriors and earned 61 caps for Scotland men before retiring at the end of 2023/24, will be off to his new post as scrum coach for both Ealing Trailfinders and Trailfinders Women.
“Fraser has been with us on a consultancy basis, but he has been offered a really good opportunity for himself moving forward,” Easson explained while speaking about the squad to face Italy on Sunday in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations round three clash at Hive Stadium.
“We would love to be keeping him because as an ex-pro coming in he has been excellent around the group. From a detail point of view and the experience that he has in the game he earned the respect of the players immediately.
“He goes with our blessings and we wish him good luck for the future and I am speaking to a couple of people at the moment about the possibility of someone coming in over the next few weeks to integrate into things so that we can then keep pushing forward towards the World Cup.
“Fraser has put in place some really good processes and we have good leaders from a lineout point of view, from a scrum point of view and from a contact point of view so we won’t need to change too much heading towards the World Cup as we have some really solid foundations to work on.
“It is disappointing to lose Fraser I’ll be honest, he will go on to have a good career in coaching and he is a shrewd character and I see him being able to go on to director of rugby-type roles down the line.
“We will look to bring somebody in up until post-World Cup. It is difficult at this time in the year to get somebody in, but we do have a couple of options that we are close to sealing off.
“I am confident we will have someone in place in the next short period of time.”
Scotland squad to play Italy: Chloe Rollie; Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Francesca McGhie; Helen Nelson, Leia Brebner-Holden; Anne Young, Lana Skeldon, Elliann Clarke, Becky Boyd, Sarah Bonar, Rachel Malcolm (C), Rachel McLachlan, Evie Gallagher. Subs: Elis Martin, Leah Bartlett, Molly Poolman, Adelle Ferriel, Alex Stewart, Jade Konkel, Caity Mattinson, Lucia Scott.
The Guinness Women’s Six Nations runs from March 22 to April 26 and, next up, Scotland are at Hive Stadium in round three versus Italy on April 13 – get tickets for the two Scotland remaining home games here.
Fraser Brown is pictured
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