Maturing Mike Phillips is still playing on the edge

It's happening again already. Mike Phillips is one of those players that, whether in his former days with the Ospreys, or Wales, you'd readily dislike him, such is his feisty, ultra competitive manner on the pitch. But put him back in the Lions fold and you become a fan again. Both feelings are, of course, a compliment.

Off the pitch he remains almost the polar opposite of the character you see in a match, very laid back, engaging and humorous. This persona is also hard to equate with the figure who has had more than his share of off-field scraps, for no sooner had he risen to the challenge of living and playing with the Lions to counter Fourie du Preez and become one of the stars of the last Lions tour than he was engaged in a night-time brawl in Cardiff.

After briefly being suspended from the Welsh World Cup training squad for another night-time scrape, he was also indefinitely suspended by the Bayonne president in his first campaign there last season. Yet another side to him is that he is a patron of the UK Charity Follow Your Dreams, which works with children and young people with learning disabilities.

If he lives on the edge at times, it appears he needs to play on the edge to bring the best out of him. Furthermore, his performances brook little argument. He’s been a lynchpin of the Welsh team which won a Grand Slam and a Six Nations either side of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.

A common thread through the last four years especially is the extent to which Phillips is evidently a big-game player and, now 30, it will be of the one tour’s major surprises if the Lions’ environment doesn’t make him one of the stars of the tour again.

“It’s the ultimate isn’t it? I think you want to play your best and fortunately for me I think I played some of my best stuff, which was great. You’re surrounded by great players and it tends to bring out the best in you and you don’t want to leave anyone down. You know how big the occasion is and what it means to everyone.

“As an individual you’ve worked so hard for it and friends and family. I was pretty pleased with my own performances but I’ve got to go one further now top those performances and be part of a winning test series team.”

He is, he says, pleased to be starting the first game. “I’ve got a chance to really show what I can do from the start. Pretty exciting stuff. People are all looking forward to it. Ever since the squad was announced, you’re waiting to getting going and training has been great, but it’s all about playing isn’t it and you’ve got a chance now at the weekend to show what you can do.”

Self-belief
His eagerness to lay down a marker personally is augmented by a self-belief that he will indeed do so. Phillips is not exactly lacking in self-confidence.

"Probably the most cocky, confident rugby player I have ever met in my life," ventured Warren Gatland is his capacity as assistant coach on the tour four years ago, and now as head coach four years on he says that verdict hasn't changed.

“But I’m saying that in a real positive way. He really has a lot of self-belief and when he’s on top of his game I think he’s very good. He’s a good threat, a real threat. People try and make a bit of a criticism about him in that he does pick up and take a bit of a step, but we’re comfortable with that because he poses a threat around the fringes as well. He’s got a very good pass, a very good kicking game, and he’s physical.”

Phillips hails from a small town in Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales called Whitland. The nearby village of Bancyfelin produced another Lion, Delme Thomas, who played in the same side as Willie John McBride a few times. Phillips’ parents, Trevor and Morfydd, reared the family on a dairy farm, and Mike was the third of three boys after Mark and Robert. “I didn’t really enjoy it, to be honest, and I couldn’t wait to get to the city. I had two brothers and I think I was the mistake.”

His father was as keen on boxing as he was on rugby, and after taking to rugby from the age of six in his formative years Phillips played scrumhalf for his club, St Clear’s RFC, and flanker for his school. Being a former flanker with an older brother, Mark, who became Welsh amateur boxing champion before fighting professionally, hardly comes as a surprise given the physical, confrontational way he plays.

Man-manage
Another factor at work here is the influence of Gatland and Rob Howley, the former Wale scrumhalf. They clearly know how to man-manage him and while his form at Bayonne hasn't always scaled the heights, it was also evident during the Six Nations how Phillips' form and fitness levels improved immeasurably as the seven-week campaign progressed, culminating in a vintage performance in the title-clinching win over England.

“Obviously there’s a lot of Welsh influences here with the coaches. I know them very well and that’s been one of the lucky things for me. I’ve got a good relationship with them and they know me very well both on and off the field so I’m very lucky in that sense. Hopefully I can adapt quickly to new calls and things. It’s going to be a process in the next couple of weeks but this is the first step and hopefully we can make it a positive one.”

Curiously, the tour opener here in Hong Kong sees Phillips reprise his Basque rivalry with Dimitri Yachvili, though the heat of a derby in the south-west of France, even in summertime, couldn't come close to this.

“I’ve played against him a few times. Obviously we speak the same language!” quipped Phlllips. “I played against him a fair few times now and he’s a great player. He lives in the Basque country with me, and Bayonne and Biarritz are big rivals. It’ll be nice to play against him.”

As for Basque derbies – Bayonne boast bigger crowds and arguably more passion for the game than their swankier neighbours from the seaside resort but not the same backing or success of latter years – he smiles as he reflects on them.

“Yeah, they’re pretty special to be honest. The atmosphere is incredible. We won away and drew at home, which was a bit unlucky but it’s been amazing; parents running onto the field fighting. It’s got it all really. (Imanol) Harinordoquy’s old man came on swinging a few. It’s an experience in itself.”

The culture of French rugby is also, he admits, very different, with more emphasis on forward play and kicking. The move to France has also exposed him to a unique style of game in that the number nines rather than the tens are kings, usually being the tactical orchestrators as well as goal-kickers, who in most instances can fill in at outhalf as well.

“Yeah, they expect me to win every game on my own I think. If we lose it’s my fault. I think, yeah a lot of ‘nines’ kick for goal and things, and do have a big influence on the game. That’s what they expect of me, to be a leader, and that’s fine, both leading the way in training and showing the way in fitness and things. I’m happy to do that and it’s been a great experience for me.”

So, a more rounded, more mature and hungrier player than four years ago will take the field today. “Everyone is going to be given an opportunity and it’s down to that individual to take it really. Obviously we’re all building for the test series and we all want those jerseys. It’s like any opportunity you get, you’ve got to take it and show how much you want it and how much it means to you.”

And you don’t doubt that he will.

Not for a second.