Chiefs prop Brown joins Albion on loan

Exeter Chiefs prop Alex Brown will go straight into the Plymouth Albion squad ahead of their Championship trip to Leeds on Friday night.

Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter today confirmed the 25-year-old forward has teamed up with Albion after the two clubs agreed a loan deal for the player.

It will be Brown’s second spell on loan at the Brickfields having previously featured for the club during the 2012/13 season when Nat Saumi was in charge.

With Brown’s game time for the Chiefs somewhat limited this season due to the form of summer signings Tomas Francis and Moray Low, Baxter believes his move down the A38 will be a ‘win-win’ for both clubs.

Baxter said: “Our front-row is going very well at the moment and touch wood we’re not having to much injuries issues either. Alex has played a fair bit of Premiership rugby for us during his time here, but his game time this season has been a bit limited.

“It’s important for us that we keep all our players topped up, whilst at the same time we have a good relationship with Plymouth who have several of our dual-registered and loan players down there already this season.

“As I said, it works for both of us, but it’s a good opportunity for Alex to get some game time under his belt in what will be a very tough fixture up at Leeds.”

Brown will have no shortage of familiar faces around him as fellow Chiefs Jack Arnott, Dan Pullinger and Sam Simmonds have all been featuring for Albion in recent games.

His arrival at Albion - who currently lie bottom of the Championship - has been welcomed by their player-coach, James Shanahan, who added: “We’ve got Alex in from Exeter and he will come straight into the squad this week.

“I had him at Old Albanians and then he went to Doncaster before signing for Exeter. We spoke to Exeter and they were keen to send him down. With Andrew Tiedemann away on international duty it just gives us that bit more experience as Leeds have got a good, dominant scrum and the game could come down to the set-piece.”