Trialist/Tom Philip

[halifaxtanning]

Trust me, I'm a Scotland Union fan, and I'm jealous of you getting Tom Philip.

You think Alan Tait was good?

Bit of history for those who don't keep an eye on Scottish Union (probably most of you).

Tom Philip was first capped in 2004, aged 21. I remember he crammed about 16 stone into his sub 6ft frame, had thighs like a Samoan and was aggressive as hell.

He jacked the game at the beginning of 2005 to deal with a long term back problem, which basically stemmed from his freakish strength for his age.

His brother was a top class 400m runner, so he's got athleticism in the family.

My memories of him stem mainly from the Calcutta Cup match in 2004, when he took the ball up into the English defence full speed in the 1st minute, got his nose smashed across his face, went off for a quick wipe down, then straight back on. The 1st thing he did after coming on was chase down Josh Lewsey from behind (no slouch) and knock him into next week.

At the age of 21 he could supposedly outlift most of the forwards in the Scotland squad,let alone the backs.

He also allegedly bent the Titanium rods surgically inserted in his back to aid his long term back problem.

Brian O'Driscoll admitted after a Leinster Edinburgh game in the Magner's League that Leinster's strategy revolved around containing him.

Basically, of he hadn't been injured, he would have 40 Scotland caps by now, and a cople of Lions tours to boot.

If you can keep him injury free, you've found yourself a real gem. Athletically he's Superleague or even GB RL material.

He's very like O'Driscoll, in fact, in terms of build and pace. Probably even bigger in fact. His game is ideally suited to League - in yer face, no backing down. If he can get a handle on the differences between Union and League, and stay injury free, you've got yourselves a star.

As a Scotland Union fan I am hoping some day to see him get capped again, but in the meantime, I'll be watching his progress at Whitehaven with interest.

[whitehavenRLforever]

Great post Halifaxtanning..

It reminds me when we signed Rob Ackerman in the late 80's. He was a Welsh RU international and a British Lion but when we signed him he'd dropped out of the National side. I still think today he was our record signing

His first game was against Doncaster and from a scrum with his 1st pass broke the line and went thro their fullback for a try. He got another in that game and I really thought we had found a gem.

He did OK in the end but didn't live up to true expectations. After a couple of years he finally ended up at Leeds but struggled.

Last I heard of him he'd suffered a heart attack a year or 2 back. Just goes to show the 2 codes might be similar but you could be a hit in 1 and average at the other

[halifaxtanning]

Yeah, there are blokes in union who are specialised for roles which don't exist in league, and some league converst recently have struggled, for reasons I don't really understand. Vainikolo should be much better than he is. Blokes like Ashton and even Stephen Myler are the real deal, though.

As for Tom Philip - he was nicknamed Tank for a reason. If you run at him he'll cut you in half, if he runs at you, you better be ready for impact..... it's a good start.

Trouble is, he'll be very frustrated. Wouldn't surprise me if he has ambitions to play superleague, perhaps GB RL, and perhaps he'll harbour ambitions to play for scotland RU again.

I hope that doesn't mean he pushes himself too hard. That can be lethal for a bloke who has had a persistent injury requiring major surgery.

So you Haven fans better be nice to him. I know it's a tough game, but remember he's had quite a lot of metal in his back.

It's a delight to see him play rugby again, even if it's not for Edinburgh and Scotland, 'cos it really looked like his career was over.

If he's managed well, you've got yourself one of the finest specimens in the world of rugby.

[havenonline]

If he's managed well, you've got yourself one of the finest specimens in the world of rugby.

Thats him knackered at Whitehaven then !!

[gibsonspiesandoxo]

send him to billy the boot anderson and jimmy ousby, 2 of the greatest players to pull on a whitehaven jumper.

[Johnno]

Great post Halifaxtanning..

It reminds me when we signed Rob Ackerman in the late 80's. He was a Welsh RU international and a British Lion but when we signed him he'd dropped out of the National side. I still think today he was our record signing

His first game was against Doncaster and from a scrum with his 1st pass broke the line and went thro their fullback for a try. He got another in that game and I really thought we had found a gem.

Rob Ackerman's first game was away at Carlisle. The first time he was tackled he didn't know how to play the ball & was penalised.

[noahrob]

[halifaxtanning]

Historically quite a lot of the Union guys who switched to League haven't been suited to it. They've been publicity signings, they've come into a league where everyone hates union and wants to prove something by eating their face, and they've gone from being amateur to the highest paid blokes in a league where everyone hates them. Union club games in the 80s also got crowds of about 1 man and his dog, whereas big League clubs could draw a couple of tens of thousands week in. It would be a lot of pressure on any man to go from an amateur sport and culture he knows to somewhere like Wigan, and listen to 15,000 people baying for his blood. Then again, it often gets forgotten that many of League's biggest stars - I'm talking Offiah, Davies, Bateman, Devereux, Tait, even Keith Fielding, came from Union.

Tom Philip was a full time professional player, as a young star he would have got used to opposition teams targeting him for "afters" and special attention, and as a game, Union is now much more similar to League than it was in the days of "kick and clap". He's also used to playing high intensity games in front of big crowds, half of whom probably want to watch him get hurt.

I know enough of Tom Philip to know that, in rugby terms, he's an intense character. I'm certain he'll have ambitions which stretch beyond making an injury comeback and having a bit of fun. He's gone straight into quite a high level of League.

IMO his biggest problem is going to be pushing himself too hard.

Bear in mind this is a player whose career was, to all intents and purposes, over.

So be nice to him! If he shows half the abilities he did pre-injury he'll have Superleague clubs all over him, not to mention Union clubs.

[Keith]

Tom Phillip won 6 full Scottish RU international caps before he was injured and what I can't understand is why he would want to come and play RL instead of trying to get back up to where he was before getting injured.   I find it strange that he thinks he can do well at RL and not RU where he already was well known and knew the game.   I think he will find that RL is a faster game altogether than RU and is harder on the body (shoulders, knees, etc) through bigger collisions.    Good luck to the lad and I hope he can make a go of it but I have doubts that he won't be physically up for it after a number of games.

[i hate town]

1st signing i been excited about 4 ages

[halifaxtanning]

Keith - I don't think the physicality of the collisions will be a problem for him. I dunno when you last watched a game of RU, but the influence of Polynesians especially has filled the game with huge collisions. Also modern RU players are big, big beasts, probably even bigger than RL players who likely need more endurance for their sport.

The one thing that might be a problem is the difference in contact techniques. In RL you obviously play the ball, in RU there's a ruck. There's also more gang tackling in league, whereas in union the objective is not to overcommit to rucks.

The way you take contact in the two sports is quite different IMO.

In Union you go in looking to make a metre, then get the ball to ground protected.

In League you try to get as far as you can without having the ball ripped away because you know you'll get to play the ball.

If you instinctively go into tackles positioned to look for the ground, the way a Union Player has to, you can easily get head knocks in RL.

This was well demonstrated by Gareth Thomas on his debut for the crusaders. He learned quickly though, and didn't make the same mistake the next game.

As for the question "why would he want to play league?" Maybe he just likes it? I'm sure a bit of him does want to play for Scotland again, but why not a new challenge?

You'd be surprised - a lot of RU fans and players like a bit of league, and don't forget Murrayfield has hosted the SL magic weekend and will do so again in a couple of weeks.

[brett kinghams mullet]

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/Interview-ExScotland-centre-Tom-Philip.6235023.jp