Tony Brown off to Japan at end of Super 12

Tony Brown has played his last game for Otago and his Highlanders rugby career will end after this season's Super 12.

Brown and the Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU) confirmed today he had accepted a contract with Japanese club Sanyo.

The ORFU has released him from his contract to play in this year's NPC and he has also been released from his New Zealand Rugby Union contract.

Brown, 29, has been plagued by hamstring and back injuries during the past two seasons but has battled back to be the first-choice first five-eighth this year.

"Otago and Highlanders rugby has been a huge part of my life but I'm not getting any younger and I thought it was time to move on when I could," he said.

"I'm grateful to Otago and the NZRU for letting me go at this stage.

"I've got no doubt that, when I finish in Japan, I'll be back here in some capacity."

Brown's last scheduled match at Carisbrook will be against the Hurricanes on April 24.

ORFU chief executive Russell Gray said his board "readily agreed" to Brown's request for an early release "because of the great service he has given Otago over many years".

"Tony goes with our thanks, blessings and good wishes."

NZRU deputy chief executive Steve Tew said Brown had given sterling service to Otago and the All Blacks.

"He's one of the characters of the game. All New Zealand fans will remember the 'party at Tony Brown's place' theme when the Highlanders played the Crusaders in the Super 12 final at Carisbrook in 1999."

To southern rugby fans, Brown epitomises tenacity and old-fashioned guts.

Born in Balclutha and raised in Kaitangata, Brown is as tough as teak and relishes physical confrontation with even the burliest of tight forwards.

What seemed an almost perpetually bleeding nose seldom kept him from physical confrontations in which his fearless tackling, hard running and accurate place kicking gained him international respect.

He made his Otago debut as a second five-eighth against Canterbury at Lancaster Park in 1995, kicking 12 points in a 27-6 win.

He eventually supplanted Stephen Bachop at first five-eighth and has played for the Highlanders since their inception in 1996.

His first professional match was against Transvaal at Carisbrook when he scored a try in the 29-15 win.

He made his All Blacks test debut against Samoa at Albany in 1999, kicking 26 points.

He represented the All Blacks at the World Cup later that year, kicking 31 points in the 101-3 win over Italy in Huddersfield.

Brown and captain Anton Oliver are the only remaining members of the Highlanders from 1996.

Mathew Berquist, a member of the Highlanders squad, is the logical replacement for Brown in the Otago No 10 jersey.

- NZPA