7 Questions for 7s Legend Ollie Phillips.

With the dust settling after an amazing Olympic Games where Rugby Sevens was re-introduced after a lengthy absence we caught up with Ollie Phillips to see get his talk about on the Games, the sport and his life after rugby.

What does life now hold for you?

From a day-to-day working perspective, Director at PwC, lead the digital transformation practice for the UK firm. Then I’m still doing a lot of my charity stuff for the three charities I’m a patron for which are Cancer Research UK, Wooden Spoon and the Alzheimer’s Society. I guess on the sporting side I’m still trying to do a whole series of adventures. I’m about to cycle up the west coast of Ireland, I’ve signed up to do the rickshaw run in India, from the most southerly point of India to the most northerly which should be a blast. Finally, the one I’m really excited about, I start an executive MBA at Cambridge any minute now so hopefully playing varsity rugby, if my body stays together then that will be the icing on the cake.

When you were finishing your career did you ever feel looked after?

The honest answer is no, not really. I did a fair amount of ‘prep’ for retirement, whenever it came, and I did have to finish a bit earlier than I would’ve liked. I was very fortunate when I retired to have met a lot of people through the sport and they have helped me in good stead now. But the same can’t be said for everyone and as you say a career threatening injury can happen at anytime and that is the difficult thing.

As our resident sevens expert how do you compare the game to fifteens? Would you regard them almost as different sports?

In terms of the levels of fitness they are. The standards and levels of fitness you now need to achieve on the World Series World Cups and Olympics are very high but equally I’m not one of the believers they are different sports. You look at the Olympic games there were sevens specialists but that GB side that got silver had James Davies, Mark Bennett and others who play fifteen-a-side week in, week out. What I think sevens is brilliant for, especially for fifteens players, is just exposes the key components of your game. So if you miss tackles or if you aren’t precise at breakdown time, or if your pass or running line is wrong or your set piece is just slightly incorrect then it’s under the magnifying glass on the sevens field. Because if you miss a tackle, they score. If you drop the ball, then the opposition have it and with possession as crucial as it is they probably score. With it being played on the biggest stages in the world you get all the advantages of exposing young, up and coming talented players to high-pressure environments like Hong Kong. What a great place to nurture future stars of the game.

Would you like to see England shift towards the Southern Hemisphere approach by using sevens as more of a stepping-stone to the 15-a-side game?

Yes I hope so. When I came through and was playing for the first two thirds of my England career it was a development pathway. When I first stepped out for England on the field was Henry Paul, Pat Sanderson, Pete Richards, Matthew Tait, Ugo Monye and Tom Varndell. They all went on and all got capped as outstanding 15s players. Then the next generation that came through after that were the Youngs brothers, Ben Foden, Tom Croft, James Haskell and all those guys have all played in the sevens environment and where they cut their cloth as 21/22 year olds coming through.

Can you identify when or why that changed?

It changed towards the end of Ben Ryan’s tenure when he thought we weren’t getting the support and buy in from the clubs with the Directors of Rugby (DoR) not releasing the young players and therefore having a last minute scramble to put together a squad. I remember not being released by Newcastle and the side lost all five games in Adelaide in 2010 and at that point it was decided there needed to be a new infrastructure in place where we pay players full time for sevens which came in by 2012/13. That is great but being honest the money the RFU has to pay the sevens players just isn’t competitive. The very top players in the sevens games will still be on at least £10,000 less than an up and coming talented Premiership star who would be looking at £80,000 plus. So it’s just not competitive enough.

We have won three of the last four Under 20 World Championships. It would be great if there was an opportunity for some of those young players who aren’t quite getting game time at their first team clubs to go away on the sevens circuit and carry on playing rugby at an even higher level than at age groups but if they are needed by the club for the LV Cup or whatever it may be then they can of course go back. There’s a new era for English rugby now so I’m hoping Eddie Jones and Simon Amor strike up a good relationship and together see sevens as a development pathway like we see from Gordon Tietjens in New Zealand.

How impressed were you with Great Britain in Rio? Did you expect a silver?

No not at all. What I have to say is the spectacle at Rio was just unbelievable, both the men’s and women’s tournament are being dubbed the highlight of the tournament by many people so to see that is great. If you could’ve written a script about who you wanted to see if the final as a neutral then it couldn’t have gone better. Fiji who have never won a medal in the countries history and there is a GB squad who have been put together in eight weeks and they have embodied everything about hard work, teamwork and team camaraderie. That is all that has got them there: blood, sweat and tears.

I wasn’t surprised by the result and what a story it is. Fully deserved and the Fijians just played on another level from anyone else. The surprise was to see GB there after a poor European series a few weeks before, losing to Russia but they pulled it around and were clinical. Except for Kenya they won every game by two points. Unfortunately, in the final they came up against a world-class Fijian side who were unbelievable in attack and equally as dominant in defence. As soon as you give any momentum to Fiji they will make you pay and that is what we saw but the efforts from the GB team were exceptional throughout and the blowout in the final was a bit of a shame but completely understandable.

As a former star but now just a fan you have to be ecstatic how the world took to the sport and it looks set to stay in the Olympics.

I really hope so. We actually go in front of the IOC a couple of weeks after the Olympics finished essentially to pitch to ensure we become a permanent fixture post Tokyo, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t be. Look at the crowds, the games and the players themselves it was incomparable really. Look at the stories from the four men’s semi-finalists with the unique story from Fiji then South Africa with all their history as well as this new outfit in GB and of course Japan who are looking to become new powerhouses. It is a really exciting time for the sport and I can only see it going from strength to strength.

Interview by Ollie Silverton for www.therugbypod.com