Saracens Sign Kelly Brown

Saracens have announced the signing of Scottish International back-rower Kelly Brown from Glasgow Warriors on a two-year-contract.

The flanker will join up with the squad in the summer and is seen as a replacement for  South African Wikus Van Heerdan who announced last week that he will leave the club at the end of the season and move back to his homeland.

Brown joined the Warriors in 2007 from Border Reivers and has made 55 appearances for the club, scoring five tries as well as earning 29 caps for Scotland.

Warriors' coach Shaun Lineen told the club's website that he was disappointed to lose Brown but understood his reasons for moving to England and added that the player will continue to give his best for the side.

He said: "Kelly is in a rich vein of form at the moment and will be a loss to us. And even though Kelly is moving on, I know he'll give everything to help Glasgow win something this season."

Brown is the second big star to announce he is leaving Firhill at the end of the season after fly-half Dan Parks announced he had signed for Magners League rivals Cardiff Blues.

Despite the high-profile exits from Glasgow, Lineen also confirmed that flanker John Barclay has signed a new two-year-contract with the club.

Barclay, who has thirteen International caps, joined the Warriors after he left school at 17 and is currently in his sixth season at the club. The flanker has made 98 appearances for the Warriors and is looking forward to helping the club progress.

"The club is definitely going in the right direction. We have a very settled squad here and I feel that we can go on and win the Magners League, if not this year then in the very near future," he said.

Both Brown and Barclay will be hoping they are part of Scotland's Six Nations Championship plans when the tournament gets underway next month.

Currently, the Rugby Union betting markets make France the favourites to win the competition.