WAYNE Pivac is trusting Leon Brown to make an impact off the bench at Twickenham, a role that he has frequently given the Dragons tighthead in the Six Nations.
The Wales boss has been in charge of 12 fixtures in the championship since taking over from Warren Gatland and he has thrown Brown the 18 jersey on nine occasions.
The 25-year-old from Newport came off the bench in every game of last year’s title triumph after doing the same job in all four of the pre-pandemic fixtures in 2020.
Brown missed out to Tomas Francis and Dillon Lewis in the rearranged finale against Scotland in Llanelli and sat out the opening two rounds of the current edition.
However, the tighthead is back to share the load with Ospreys starter Francis in London and win his 21st cap, of which three have been in the 3 jersey.
“It was always in our mind to give all the tightheads a go in the first half of the competition,” said Pivac about Brown. “He’s trained well during the week and we’ll see how he goes.”
If there is a concern then it’s about Brown’s lack of game time due to a summer nerve/shoulder issue, coronavirus postponements and then Test duty.
He returned to action against Edinburgh at the end of November then faced Glasgow, Perpignan and Lyon in December.
The festive derbies then got scratched and his sole outing since was against Benetton in the Challenge Cup on January 15.
Pivac opted not to release him for the pre-Six Nations game against the Italian club in the United Rugby Championship or Sunday's home fixture against Ulster.
Brown has played just 200 minutes of competitive rugby this season but is likely to be called upon for a key half hour against England, who start with Ellis Genge at loosehead with Joe Marler on the bench.
The Dragons man is known for being dynamic around the park yet his strides in the tight had earned the trust of Pivac, who flung him on for a defensive five-metre scrum at Murrayfield last year.
“Set-piece he has done well and is improving all the time in this environment. He's a big guy and we see a big future for him,” said the head coach.
“Dillon has done very well. It's not a case of a player being dropped here, it's giving players opportunities and they both deserve it.
“You'd agree Dillon has come on and made an impact each time. There's a challenge there for Leon, he's scrummed well against England the last couple of occasions he's come on and hopefully that will be the case again.
“He has been out of rugby for a wee while, worked really hard in training, had the shoulder injury in the summer and only had a handful of games for the Dragons.
“He's worked hard in training, we feel he deserves this opportunity and we'll see how he goes.”
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