MIKE Brown's Harlequins coach has paid tribute to the Southampton-born England star after he made his 250th appearance for his club.

The former Peter Symonds College student reached the milestone when he played in Quins' 26-25 Premiership defeat at Exeter on Saturday.

Quins head coach John Kingston still recalls the day he first clapped eyes on the 30 year-old full-back.

He told Quins TV: "I should start with admission that when I first saw him in Aldershot I wasn't 100 per cent sure. I like to think I can form a view quite quickly about who I think can do what, where and when and he looked a miserable surly git - that hasn't changed!

"He has an unbelievable attitude to maximise what he can be, he's incredibly driven. If someone doubts he can jump a bar then just look out because he will jump that bar.

"His attention to detail, once he has clarity of what it is that is required...it seems a long time ago when he was playing well for Quins and England were ignoring him steadfastly but the number of times he asked things like 'what else have I got to do ranging from you're not quick enough what about your one-on-one tackling going back to those days.

"All the disappointments, he's had in terms of not being picked when he probably should have been has made him a more complete 50-cap player for England.

"When you play for England you want to to not be a one-off and he was a pretty complete player when he first went.

"Off the pitch he's very shy, engaging, personable, caring... all of those words. If you treat Michael on a personal level the way he expects to be treated you get an awful lot back.

"He just doesn't suffer fools gladly and suffer situations that are not tolerable gladly.

Sometimes there's an overkill in his reaction to certain things but that's his competitivenvess coming out. He's an amazingly competitive man.