Brilliant Mike Phillips Story That Perfectly Sums Him Up

This sounds like Mike Phillips alright.

It’s safe to say Mike Phillips will go down as one of the best nines the northern hemisphere has ever produced. The former Lions and Wales scrumhalf redefined what it is to be a nine, with his excellent vision and massive size and strength.

Phillips was a nightmare for defences, due to his ability to pick and go, almost like having an extra back-row forward, who also had excellent vision and passing skills. He played in starring role for Wales in many of their triumphs and was one of the stand-out players in the 2009 and 2013 British & Irish Lions tours.

The only problem is- he knew it. Phillips has always come across as extremely confident in his ability, which in fairness, is probably why he was so good. Former teammate Lee Byrne recalled an excellent story last night that perfectly illustrates this.

Speaking at WalesOnline’s Live Welsh Rugby Debate Byrne explains that most professionals tend to travel business class when flying out for games. They do of course however, still have to go through the usual standard passport controls and Phillips used to take this opportunity to have a bit of fun.

“I’ve got a story about Mike Phillips, I usually tell one about Andy Powell but I’ll give Mike his story tonight,” he said.

“When we flew away for tours, we were fortunate enough to be put in business class on these flights.

We’d get our tickets and every time Mike would get his, he’d hand it in and say ‘there’s something wrong with this ticket’.

“And the man or woman behind the counter would say ‘no there’s not, it’s business class’ and he’d reply ‘well, where’s world class?!’

“They’d normally just look at him and walk off and I swear he must have done that on about 10 tours.”

Absolutely brilliant!