Locks Heath Rugby Club enjoyed a once in a lifetime training session this week as England full-back Mike Brown descended on Hampshire.

Brown, who was born in Southampton and attended Peter Symonds College and also Wyvern College, started his rugby career in Hampshire playing for Salisbury and Melksham.

Those days, though, must now seem a distant memory for Brown, who has gone on to win 43 caps for England and featured over 200 times in the club colours of Premiership Harlequins in south-west London. Brown was helping to run a grassroots training session with Locks Heath as part of Land Rover’s ‘We Deal in Real’ campaign, which aims to champion grassroots rugby, with the Hampshire club winning the chance to enjoy the benefit of the England man's wisdom after entering a competition during Rugby World Cup 2015."

And Brown, who was this week named in newly-appointed England boss Eddie Jones’ 33-man squad for the upcoming Six Nations next month, admits without grassroots rugby he would not be the player he is today.

“I’m involved in this campaign going back to grassroots rugby because obviously that’s where I started,” said Land Rover ambassador Brown.

“We’re down here doing a bit of training with these guys and helping out with a bit of contact training and a few tips."

“It was seniors, hopefully they took some stuff away that I suggested. It’s great to see how hard they work."

“Grassroots is massively important, it’s where I started playing and if it wasn’t for grassroots rugby, I wouldn’t have got into it."

“I was talking about the experiences that I had early in my rugby career and if I hadn’t had those enjoyable experiences, I wouldn’t have wanted to carry on playing."

“All those people that gave up their time to coach me and make sure we had the right equipment, got us the games, put on the few tournaments that I was involved in."

“All those things that I’m so fond of in my memory, which got me to continue playing rugby and got me at the level I am today.”

Mike Brown is a Land Rover ambassador. Land Rover’s ‘We Deal In Real’ campaign continues to champion grassroots rugby. Follow @LandRover_UK #WeDealInReal