Brough under no illusions as Scotland head to Four Nations
Danny Brough was at Red Hall this week to collect the European Championship trophy, alongside Scotland coach Steve McCormack and a handful of other players.
The occasion marked a double triumph for Brough, who was also named as Player of the Tournament.
Now a real challenge awaits the Scots, as they begin to prepare to take part in the 2016 Four Nations tournament, alongside Australia, New Zealand and England.
Brough is relishing the chance for the men in dark blue to play in the game’s top international tier, but he knows that it will represent an enormous challenge for McCormack’s squad.
“That’s really exciting. We are obviously under no illusions that we need to get more players into our squad but we’ve two years to build up to it,,” said Brough.
“We’re behind the eight ball, we understand that, we are facing the best in the world but hopefully we can cause an upset.
“The spirit we showed in last year’s World Cup and now to win something on the back of it just shows that we are moving forward.
“To achieve something like this and to blood eight new debutants is really special and showed we were worthy of wearing the shirt.
“I love being an experienced player among them, the young lads are always asking me questions in camp but there are no egos.
“That’s how it should be, we all get along and that’s where we get our hardworking mentality from.”
Brough was delighted to also pick up the Player of the Tournament award, and thanked his club, Huddersfield Giants, for backing his international plans.
He will now have a break of just one week before beginning preseason with Paul Anderson‘s Giants squad.
“I’m really pleased with the individual award and I wasn’t expecting it,” Brough said of the inaugural honour, presented for performances on the field and his support off it.
“I just tried to transfer my passion to the young lads, I love to win at everything I do and I think that showed.
“This justifies wanting to play in the European Championship. Any time you receive a trophy is great, not just for me but for Scotland.
“Huddersfield backed me on this, and I thank them for that, but I enjoy myself every time I meet up with the Scottish boys.”