'Joie de
vivre' is never in short supply in Paris, but one particular
household has been especially buoyant of late in the French
capital.
The
accents may still need a bit or work but the enthusiasm and
success of its two residents more than makes up for it as
James Haskell and Ollie Phillips continue to bed-in
following their summer moves across the Channel.
Haskell
now finds himself back in the England squad while Phillips
has already scored some crucial tries for the Paris giants,
and is hoping to resume his captaincy of the England sevens
team next month.
Confidence abounds - as it should with two such rugby stars
- and Phillips is delighted for his housemate. He even plans
to go and watch the England v Argentina game next week as
Top 14 has now broken up for 16 days.
There
was much talk back in the summer about France-based players
being largely excluded from Martin Johnson's plans, but
today's match-day squad dramatically disproves those fears
with five of the 22 players currently contracted to French
clubs.
"You
can't not select good players, and that was always going to
be the way," said Phillips. "Maybe if it was a 50-50 call
and both players were playing just as well then maybe the
English player would get the nod. I just think there's no
point biting your nose off to spite your own face.
"Martin
Johnson seems a pretty level-headed bloke and keeps his feet
on the ground, and in that situation he wants to do what is
best for the team."
Few players have a better insight of what
Haskell has been through since moving to France and Phillips
is clearly pleased for his housemate. "It's great for him,
and I think the move to France has been brilliant for him
because it's allowed him to focus on what he does best. To
focus on his strengths and what he's good at, and to keep
getting better and better at doing them. And if they're what
England needs then he's got them in spades.
"Whereas
before, in England, he got caught up worrying too much about
the boxes that he needed to tick in order to try and please
everyone. But once you become a Jack of all trades you're a
master of none, and then you don't start. You're not
involved because you're not doing what used to make you
brilliant and make people say 'Oh my God, have you seen this
bloke James Haskell? He's annihilating people in the tackle,
he's quick, he's brilliant on the floor, he's strong and
powerful' and everything else.
"He had
been paying attention to all the other areas that people
told him to get better in, and the original things that
caught the eye got sort of neglected. Now he's focusing on
what he's really, really good at. He's playing out of his
skin to be honest and at Stade he's easily one of our most
valuable players," confirms Phillips.
It
helps, of course, that he's now playing with such
extraordinary talents as fellow back-rowers Sergio Parisse
and Juan Leguizamon.
"You
learn all sorts of things, of course, but the benefit from
their perspective is that they compliment what he [Haskell]
is good at. You've got 'Leggy', who is skillful and has
great feet and everything else. You've got 'Hask', who is
quick and brilliant on the floor, and you've got Parisse who
has got the hands.
"They
all sort of compliment each other and the fact that they are
all pretty good at everything else tends to help as well. So
I'm really pleased for him and hopefully I'm going to watch
the Argentina game next weekend. It's great for him to be
back because he's a big confidence player," said Phillips.
So it's
a happy Paris household Chez Phillips et Haskell?
"Yeah,
it's good," admits the former Newcastle Falcons winger. "We
get on well, but he seems to lead his life through Twitter,
which is how I find out where he is half the time."
