Respect.

Mike Brown has hit back at his critics in a bit of a bizarre interview with Sky Sports following England’s series defeat to South Africa in Bloemfontein on Saturday evening.

The Harlequins man says it would be ‘nice to get a little bit of respect sometimes’, stating he’s England’s most capped fullback and that he does a lot of unseen work ‘apart from scoring tries.

“I’ve come in for a bit of criticism but I’m on 71 caps now – it would be nice to get a little bit of respect sometimes,” Brown said.

“I’ve played wing, full-back – I’m the most capped full-back in English rugby. It would be nice for people to see some of the unseen work I do apart from scoring tries.

“I don’t need to say what I’ve achieved in my career. I love playing for England and with these guys and I will keep working hard on this journey to the World Cup and hopefully I will be there.”

Brown also opened up on the post-match confrontation between himself, Joe Marler and a supporter.

“I caught the back end off him [Marler] walking off and some supporter decided to lean over and give him some abuse,” Brown said.

“When a guy who you think should be supporting you is saying you aren’t trying your best – and that is putting it nicely – I just told him to shut up basically.

“We try day-in-day-out to get better and we are out there trying our best and if somebody is telling you are not then they are way off the mark. We stick up for ourselves if someone is saying something we don’t like.”

Bizarre stuff from Brown. England are on one of their worst runs in years, losing five (six technically) games on the trot – and he’s concerned about people’s perception of him as an individual.

Says a lot.