England sevens captain
Ollie Phillips is still uncertain what role, if any, he
will play in this year’s IRB Sevens World Series as
talks remain ongoing about his potential release between his
club (Stade Francais) and country (RFU).
Phillips, who lead England
to victory in New Zealand and London last season and is the
current IRB Sevens Player of the Year, remains optimistic a
working solution can be found, but appreciates that Stade
are his paymasters and the final decision will largely be up
to them.
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“As far as I am concerned
I am involved,” he told frenchrugbyclub.com.
“It’s more of a case of a compromise between England and
Stade and I leave that discussion to those two parties,
because as a player you don’t want to get involved in that
and be seen to be taking sides.
“I love playing for
England and I love playing for Stade. From my perspective as
England captain that obviously comes with a certain
responsibility to play, but at the same time I’ve signed for
Stade, they are my employers and I also want to get into the
full England side. The way I’m going to do that is by
playing for Stade and playing well with Stade.
“So, fundamentally, my
priority has to be with Stade in the short term, but sevens
has given me so much in terms of my rugby that I would
always want to go and play for England at any opportunity. I
hope that there is an accord struck so that I can go for
whether it be all the tournaments or some of the major
tournaments – whatever they decide together. They’re talking
at the moment,” he said.
The forthcoming Dubai
event (on December 4-5) marks the start of this year’s
global tournament and Phillips is especially keen to carry
on representing (and captaining) his country following the
sport’s official elevation to Olympic status. But his
involvement will only go ahead on Stade’s blessing, and the
coaching set up there has changed since he signed from
Newcastle Falcons in the summer, with Jacques Delmas and
Didier Faugeron coming in for the sacked Ewen McKenzie and
Christophe Dominici.
As Phillips looks ahead to
the possible tournaments it quickly becomes clear that Stade
may not be that happy to release a player who is making a
name for himself in Paris for scoring crucial late tries.
“You go to Dubai, South
Africa and then there’s a month and a half off, and then it
goes to Wellington, Las Vegas and then it’s another month
and a half or two months off, and then it goes Hong Kong,
Adelaide, another two months and then London and Edinburgh,”
he says.
“I would love to play in
them because they are great tournaments and it’s the World
Series, but at the same time I want to win the Top 14 and
the Heineken Cup with Stade Francais, and I want to start.
If me going away with England on and off is going to affect
that then I will need to look at it, but hopefully Stade
will come to some sort of arrangement over my release,” he
adds.
The 26-year-old is still
buzzing that sevens has been accepted into the Olympic
family and has now set his sights on playing in the world’s
biggest sporting event.
“It’s good for rugby, not
just sevens, it’s enormous. In general for rugby it’s going
to be pretty spectacular because rugby is going to be an
Olympic sport, which it hasn’t been for a long, long time,
so it’s massive. That’s obviously another reason why I want
to keep playing sevens and keep with England, because next
year we’ve got the Commonwealth Games in India in October
and then there will probably be a dummy run at the Olympics
in 2012 (in London) and then it will be officially at Rio in
2016. All those sort of things are just great to be involved
in, and I could be involved in both if I can wheel myself
out,” said Phillips.
“That would be the
pinnacle of my rugby career if I could play in the Olympic
Games. I would be fortunate enough to probably be going with
a team that could win it, that would be pretty awesome and a
way to out,” he added.
And if he does get to the
Olympic village Phillips said he’d make a beeline straight
for the world’s fastest man.
“I would definitely try
and have a race with Usain Bolt. I would say ‘Look I know
you’re going to beat me but I just at least want to say that
I ran a race against you’. I might challenge him to an egg
and spoon race,” he said.
That prospect alone should
ensure these two get the opportunity to go head-to-head, but
it will require some tricky negotiations between Stade
Francais and the RFU for that to become more than a mere
dream.
IRB Sevens World Series
schedule:
Dubai
4-5 December 2009
'The Sevens' Dubai
South
Africa
11-12 December 2009
Outeniqua Park, George
New
Zealand
5-6 February 2010
Westpac Stadium, Wellington
USA
13-14 February 2010
Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas
Australia
19-21 March 2010
Adelaide
Hong Kong
26-28 March 2010
Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong
England
22-23 May 2010
Twickenham, London
Scotland
29-30 May 2010
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
