The Breakdown | Mike Brown and Leicester’s veterans show heart and soul has no age limit

Tigers’ win over Saracens on Sunday was a timely reminder that elite sport is not just a matter of youthful exuberance

Professional rugby is increasingly a numbers game. Pounds, euros, metres carried, kick percentages, set-piece efficiency. Some of it is useful information, some of it clutters the imagination. It is also worth keeping in mind that one of the greatest strengths of a top player cannot be fully measured. To borrow the old saying, it’s not the size of the dog that matters, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

You can, in other words, be the best athlete in the world, with the most chiselled physique and the best gym scores. And you can still be swept aside by the boundless competitiveness and inner drive of the insanely committed. Rarely will you see a better example than Mike Brown’s man-of-the-match performance for Leicester against the Premiership leaders, Saracens, on Sunday.