Why Phillips Jnr is shaping up nicely as a real chip off the old block
HIS dad played in one of Welsh rugby’s most famous front rows, as part of a team that became the most feared in Britain.
Kevin Phillips was part of Neath’s trio of front-row farmers that saw Brian Williams on one side of him and John Davies on the other. Before Davies, Jeremy Pugh had held down the tight-head berth at The Gnoll.
Phillips led Wales on their tour of Namibia in 1990 but it was in the all black of his club that he will be forever remembered, with his up and at ’em style and rousing leadership helping to set the tone during the club’s glory years of the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The Welsh All Blacks would force a penalty, and before the opposition had time to regroup the Neath skipper would have tapped the ball and be driving deep into enemy lines.
Now his son Ifan is pushing through at the Ospreys.
It is still early days for him, but he played 63 minutes off the bench against Ulster last month and didn’t look out of place.
Indeed, his performance saw him bidding strongly for turnovers – a commodity the Ospreys haven’t exactly been awash with this season, not a single player having achieved 10 or more steals on opposition ball – and displaying an encouraging liveliness around the field.
He also has an on-pitch demeanour that suggests he is never far from a war footing.
“I’m sure he’ll forgive me for saying it, but he has that ‘what do you mean?’ about him,” said new Ospreys head coach Allen Clarke, a former hooker himself.
“He has a real edge, he’s driven, he’s athletic.
“I see his obstinance as a hooker, which I’m really pleased with.”
Clarke went out of his way to stress that Scott Otten, Sam Parry and Scott Baldwin, the three other front-line No. 2s in the Ospreys squad, were also excellent players.
“We are strong in that department,” he added.
“You’d like all four to be vying for the jersey on a weekly basis, but because of injuries we’ve had only two available at any given time this season.”
Otten, Parry and Baldwin had been expected to carve up the hooking duties at the Ospreys in 2017-18, but Phillips junior has featured 10 times.
Young players can often struggle to make the step up to the senior game with its greater pace, intensity and physicality.
But the 22-year-old the former Coleg Sir Gar and Pembrokeshire College student, who previously played for Carmarthen Quins and Wales Under-20s, has shown a relish for the challenge.
He may need to continue working at his throwing, but his speed in the loose and eagerness to pilfer opposi-