The 21-year-old, a No 8 or openside flanker, has been at Vannes since being released by United Rugby Championship club Edinburgh’s academy in summer 2023 and signed a contract extension keeping him there until 2028 in April. The former Scotland under-20 captain hasn’t played for Vannes’ seniors since arriving in Britanny two years ago and is now being loaned out to Rennes for the next French Federal National Championship season in the hope of getting more game-time. His new team, based only 72 miles inland from his parent club, won the fourth-tier French National Division 2 title last season – with 90 points from 22 fixtures, five clear of runners-up Orleans – and will be hoping to mount a challenge to join Vannes, relegated this summer after finishing bottom of the Top 14 on 36 points from 26 games, in Pro D2 next time round. Brown played for Melrose and their Southern Knights Fosroc Super Series offshoot ahead of joining Edinburgh’s academy in 2021. Announcing his loan signing, a Rennes spokesperson said: “We are proud to announce the arrival in our third row of Rudi Brown on loan. “A former captain of the Scotland under-20 national team, Rudi joins the black and white family for the 2025/26 season. “Welcome to Rennes, Rudi.” Rennes begin next season away to Perigueux in the Dordogne on Saturday, August 23, and their first home game of the new campaign is against Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes outfit Bourgoin-Jallieu seven days later. Brown is one of almost a handful of former Borders players now at French clubs, the others being his old Melrose teammate Finn Douglas at Pro D2 outfit Valence Romans Drome, ex-Gala flanker Gary Graham at their new rivals Carcassonne and Hawick’s Stuart Hogg at the Top 14’s Montpellier Herault.