No, Brown isn’t a crap player. He’s very good.
At top international level though – he is crap. You want your fullback to be a real gamebreaker. A proper threat with ball in hand. Think Folau, Dagg, Ben Smith, LeRoux, Liam Williams, Hogg etc.
He plays well, tries hard, makes yards etc etc but he doesn’t have “it”.
He cannot fix a man and give a pass. That alone should be enough to dispense with him.
He doesn’t have enough pace. He’s improved but it’s still suspect. The missed tackle on Foley was partly because he was struggling to get there. Alex Goode has the same problem.
Your fullback frequently is the 2nd last man in attack where extreme pace and the ability to draw the last defender and give the scoring pass are crucial. Brown has cost us several tries in the last 4 years.
Fatty Barnes wrote a good peice in The Times after the Grand Slam saying that if England want to move forward, they need to do so without Brown.
As a short term fixture he’s been ok. Long term – no.
Get Watson in there now. He might make some mistakes at first but he’ll improve with time at 15 and could be world-class by 2019. If England want to be the best in the world they need to start there.
