It would have been easy for Abbie Brown to walk away.
When the RFU reduced Great Britain’s sevens programme to part-time status in July last year, the longtime captain of both England and GB was at a loss, dejected by what could have been the end of her career in the game she loves.
Brown and her team-mates were all signed to PWR clubs, but when Scotland, through Ciaran Beattie and David Nucifora, decided to keep the programme alive, she wanted in.
Because ‘easy’ is not Abbie Brown’s style.
Along with fellow sevens regulars Grace Crompton and Heather Cowell, Brown returned to the Great Britain side in Vancouver last week, adding some much-needed starch to a team that has fielded 21 debutantes this season and is yet to win a game on the HSBC SVNS series.
While the results stayed the same, Brown says she’s exactly where she wants to be.
“I had so much fun being back around the girls, back around the tournament, and it made me realise that I still love sevens so much,” she said.
“It’s been a tough couple of months, but the fact that I can still run around, have fun, yeah, absolutely loved it and I’ve got a new appreciation for everything about it.”
After a couple of early season appearances for Loughborough Lightning, Brown would have been back on the series sooner but for another pesky hamstring injury. She was reminded straight away in Vancouver how unforgiving the game is.
“Usually I’ve got a great engine, that's my super strength and I can last 14 minutes but the first game against New Zealand I was just walking all over the place, absolutely shattered, I was so tired and my lungs were somewhere else… I just thought ‘you’re never sevens fit’.”
While she’s relishing being back in the game she loves, Brown says there are some stark realities for the team and the programme.
Players are called in each tournament from various PWR clubs, or in some cases, pathway programmes, and have minimal time together.
Brown calculates they had about seven hours training as a group before getting on the plane and taking on series leaders New Zealand in the opening match in Vancouver.
“The hard part is that we don’t have loads of camp numbers at the moment in order to push in training and all that kind of stuff because players have to be released by the clubs,” she said.
“There are a couple of girls who have never played sevens but they’re learning so quickly and are so grateful to be here so we really fed off their excitement.
“It’s another reminder that for some people, this is what they really want — not everybody loves fifteens — and that really re-energised myself, Grace and Hev (Cowell).”
Now in her 10th season, this week’s tournament in New York will be Brown’s 46th series event making her, along with France’s Carla Niesen, the third-most capped of active players.
She’ll again slot into a fly-half role, adding new strings to her bow a decade into her career, and Brown says she, Cowell and Crompton are doing all they can to upskill their team-mates in the cauldron of the series.
“People don't know what they don't know, so how can we help, how can we help them understand the game better and have fun while doing it?
“Obviously we’re looking for that top eight finish at the end of the season and that first win, but how can we also help them be the best versions of themselves so that, a) they want to come back to Sevens and, b) they go and tell everyone how much fun they had.”
Brown expects a few more regulars to become available for the World Championship events as the PWR season winds down, reiterating that sevens is the game many of them chose but hands were forced and fifteens isn’t for everyone.
She’s ready to go back and continue spreading the gospel… After all, England and Great Britain sevens were the vehicle that drove the careers of Meg Jones and Ellie Kildunne, playing at the Olympics long before winning World Cups.
After missing out on the Paris Olympics due to injury, Brown is also absolutely committed to getting herself and Great Britain to the 2028 LA Games.
“I still have aspirations to go to LA, I still want to get this squad in a good place, I want to show the union, show everyone that GB can be really good, that we can battle with the best of the best if we’re just given a chance.”
As she prepares to lead Great Britain this weekend at HSBC SVNS New York and they go in search of that elusive first win, Brown says a conversation with her Dad remains in her mind.
“When the cuts were made last year and I thought, ‘I’m not going to be a professional athlete anymore’, my dad said to me ‘what defines professionalism?’,” she recalls.
“He said ‘you’re still putting in the time, putting in the hours, putting in the dedication, the motivation to actually go and play, so why would you still not be a professional athlete? Why are you counting yourself not as one?’.”
If that’s the sort of wisdom that can only come from a parent, Abbie Brown’s attitude is the sort that can only come from a true professional.