IRB Series: Dubai / South Africa leg  

The start of the tournament on Friday isn’t far away now and we now need to focus on the task ahead. The players are looking sharp, the guys understand what we’re doing and we’re all starting to click.

We have all gelled really well as a team. I’m room sharing with my fellow Newcastle Falcons team mate Micky Young, who’s quite a character.

We arrived on Saturday morning at 7.00am and were pretty tired from the flight. Saturday and Sunday were relaxation days trying to get everyone back into the swing of it so we had a couple of pool sessions.

Our physio Brett Davison gave us some challenges, one of which was to carry each other from one end of the pool to the other. It was fine for the taller guys but Micky Young and Tom Biggs, the two shorter members of the squad, struggled a little.

Monday was down to business and we had some heavy duty training sessions, which on Tuesday, concluded with a match against the British Heart Foundation. The BHF squad is like another England sevens team, with the likes of Tony Roques, Dominic Shabbo and Jack Adams, who are out here to take part in another tournament which runs alongside the main Dubai event.

Dubai is such an amazing place, I couldn’t believe how much it had changed since I was last here, the heat is still as intense though but it’s been a welcome break from the cold in England.

On Tuesday me and Tom Biggs popped out to have a quick look around the shopping mall. Half way around Tom made me close my eyes and he dragged me into this room where we sat down in front of this massive 103inch plasma screen TV. After that, we found a bucking bronco chair, which Tom wanted to buy until he realised it was £4500!

Wednesday was a brilliant team building day. We were invited onto a 90ft yacht by a Sheikh to watch the QE2 enter the Dubai Palm, where it’s going to be moored and turned into a hotel. We also saw the A380 Airbus, the largest commissioned aeroplane, which flew over us several times, it looked amazing. After that, all the players took a swim in the ocean. Everyone had a great time and it did us good to take our minds off the rugby for a couple of hours.

In the evening we had the official tournament function at the Rooftop Gardens in Wafi City. We met all the sponsors, media and VIPs for the tournament but we didn’t stay for too long though as we all needed our rest ahead of Thursday.

Our preparations are in full swing now. We have one last training session on Thursday morning then it’s time to focus on Friday’s first match against Portugal - I can’t wait.

Part 2

“It was an amazing feeling to captain the squad today, I’ve never captained my country before so it was special, a huge honour and a massive accolade.

“There was a bit more pressure on me today because Ben Gollings was resting so I was in at fly half so not only did I have to skipper but I had to kick too - but I loved every minute of it - I’m quite a vocal character anyway so I quite enjoyed it. To lift the trophy as captain would be the best feeling in the world.

“As a team we spoke all week about being professional and doing things with quality in every aspect of our game. First match was Portugal and then USA which were going to be potential banana skins for us but we knew if we did what we were good at and didn’t deviate from what we said we were going to do then we’d be ok.

“Both teams definitely gave us a challenge. From my perspective the boys really turned up today and the tries that we gave away were from our own mistakes rather than the opposition actually attacking us so that’s a positive for us as you can always correct mistakes.

“Then we came to the big one at the end against Fiji which was massive for us, especially for Josh Drauninui and Isoa Damudamu, the two Fijians in our team. Damu had been rejected by Fiji a few years ago so for us to then go and dominate them and beat them in every facet of their game and dictate the pace to win 28-5 was a great feeling. I have only ever encountered that once in my playing career and that was in LA when we beat Fiji in the final.

“We’ve got Argentina tomorrow morning and we need to make sure we’re back on the money doing what we’ve done all day today.”

Cheers Ollie

Cheers

Ollie

IRB Sevens Series - Wellington/San Diego Leg

All the guys can talk about now is the tournament. We’ve been together for two weeks, training and bonding as a team and we’re all pumped up and ready to hit Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.

Since arriving in Wellington we have been training really hard so today as a treat we were allowed out for a couple of hours. We decided we’d hook up with the local ‘Harley Owners Club’, very cool!

A group of 25 Harley Davidson bikers picked us up from our team hotel and took us on a tour of Wellington. We went through the countryside and saw some unbelievable scenery - I never realised Wellington was so green.

We eventually headed up a huge hill which looked over the whole of Wellington and the view was breathtaking. After a short rest we were back on the bikes and we headed through the town with everyone staring at us.

We’ve been hearing all the stories from home about the snow and I’m glad I’m over here. The weather has been great. We even managed to catch a bit of sun whilst training. The jet lag is pretty bad but that’s to be expected.

I’ve been catching up with my movies, whilst we’re away me and Biggsy (Tom Biggs) run a movie club, where all the guys come to Brett’s room (England Sevens Physiotherapist) and we watch movies. My favourite so far is Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood, he’s a legend.

On Thursday we have the Wellington parade which is a huge day where the whole town comes out to celebrate the sevens. If you’ve never experienced it then it’s hard to explain, but basically thousands of fans from all over New Zealand descend on Wellington for one big party.

Bring on Friday. Our first match kicks off at 1pm against France and I can’t wait!

Cheers

Ollie

IRB Sevens Series Wellington/San Diego

To lead England to victory in Wellington feels absolutely awesome. I knew we could do it. I have faith in this squad and we've worked so hard to get to this point. The Wellington trophy is the ultimate reward for that hard work.

After the final we all headed to the town for a couple of drinks to celebrate. Wellington was buzzing with people having a good time and carrying on the sevens party into the evening. Rusty (Assistant Coach, Russell Earnshaw) and Biggsy (Tom Biggs, Leeds Carnegie) were playing practical jokes on each other and trying to get the rest of us involved but it didn't come off, we were all so tired.

On Sunday we had a rest before we had to fly to San Diego for the next leg of the Series. A few of us chose to go to the cinema. The Wellington cinemas have lazy chairs which are wicked. We watched Valkyrie, Tom Cruise's new film, which was very entertaining. 

We flew to San Diego on Sunday night, most of us slept on the flight. We arrived on Monday morning and got straight back into training. We've had a pool and training session every day this week. The squad are all feeling refreshed now and are all fit and ready to face Scotland in our first match on Saturday.

Today we are heading out to do some team bonding at SeaWorld, we are going to watch Shamu the killer whale, which we've nicknamed Damu after Isoa Damudamu (Army)! 

After winning last weekend we have set ourselves new goals. Now that we've won a tournament the challenge is to win back to back tournaments, I hope we can rise to it!

Cheers

Dubai Sevens World Cup

Tomorrow I will be leading England out at a Rugby World Cup and I really can't wait! 

We've been working so hard and we've come along away so it will be good to finally get the tournament underway.

We arrived last Tuesday and had a week's training camp in Jabel Ali. The resort was beautiful, the rooms had views of the beach and it was very secluded. We trained twice a day and had a pool session every day so it was quite intense. But we did find time to play a little beach volleyball and of course, I was king of the court.

On Sunday we relocated to the Atlantis. It's massive and we're still trying to find our way around! After we'd settled in we headed to the Dubai Mall for a signing session with the Aggreko Dynamo cheerleaders, which was very interesting. I think one of them took a shine to Crackers (Chris Cracknell).

On Monday we went to the Emirates Towers to the Christine Noble lunch, which supports the Christine Noble children's foundation, we had a great time, I had to get up on stage and answer questions from John Bentley. When we got back we decided to hold a movie night to all wind down.

Yesterday was our first day off since we arrived and as Atlantis is such an amazing place we decided to stay here to check out what was on offer. They have a water adventure park in the grounds so after lunch we all went down to it. The slides are crazy and they have one called 'Leap of Faith'. It's a sheer drop that takes you through an underwater shark tank. A few of the guys ripped their shorts on the way down because it was so fast and a few chickened out. I thought it was wicked.

Today and yesterday we had some media opportunities and it's nice to see so many people coming to town to watch and support the sevens. BG (Ben Gollings) and me did an interview with Hello! in Dubai, which we were pretty excited about, I'm looking forward to seeing it in print.

Anyway today we started with a training session and we've just had lunch so I'm off to rest. 

Tomorrow can't come quick enough for me. It's going to be a massive and exciting day.

Cheers

Ollie 

We are in the 1/4s now!

We made it through and now it starts getting really though. We face Samoa today in the cup quarter final and it's going to be a massive game. But you need to play top sides, that's how you improve and I'm confident that these 12 men can rise to the challenge.

Yesterday was a very long day but a successful one. I think the match against Tunisia was a wake up call. They played very well and so did we in the first half but in the second we just sat back and rested on our laurels and we were punished for it.

Tom's (Varndell) pass to BG (Ben Gollings) was the right decision as it allowed BG to score right under the posts for the conversion, if we hadn't of done that then we wouldn't be where we are now.

After that match we were fairly down but we knew Kenya would be a must win match and we needed to pick ourselves up and remind ourselves that we are in a World Cup.

We had a really long break between the two matches, which was good, because it gave us a chance to refocus and rest. I had a sleep as did most of the boys, some watched a few of the other matches. After the rest we all had a run about to wake the muscles and get ready for the match.

So now we're faced with Samoa, they beat us in San Diego so we have a score to settle.

My family are here and that's been really nice, although, I haven't really been able to see them but to know they are here is a support.

Cheers

Ollie

HONG KONG MARCH 2009

MY first time in Hong Kong and I can see why it's rated as one of the best sevens tournaments because this is just such an amazing place.

In between training we've managed to have some downtime and on Saturday me, Crackers (Chris Cracknell) and Kev (Barrett) went for a little pampering. I had a massage and a pedicure. My massage has definitely left an impression as the masseur was little heavy handed and Kev's pedicure left him a shoe size smaller from all the dead skin they removed - yuk!

After that we went to the night market to pick up a bargain or two. Our coach Ben Ryan boasted that he was the best haggler, which was clearly a lie as after about an hour all he'd managed to secure was a pair of pink pyjamas.

Yesterday we had a muscle beach workout session. Biggsy (Tom Biggs) likes to work on his guns whilst the rest of us work on the whole body, the management even get involved with our physiotherapist Brett (Davison) partnering up with Crackers. After that we held a values session where we talk about how we want to be seen and remembered during the tournament and it was very positive. 

After the disappointment of losing to Samoa in the quarter final of the Rugby World Cup Sevens our focus is firmly on the Series title. We're currently joint first with South Africa so a win here would really boost us.

BG (Ben Gollings), Rusty (Russell Earnshaw), Roders (James Rodwell), Tom (Varndell), Biggsy (Tom Biggs) and Vicks (Rob Vickerman) have been arriving over the past couple of days after playing for their respective clubs over the weekend, so today was our first day together training as a whole squad, but already we are looking sharp.

Tomorrow we are travelling to training on the Star Ferry which we catch from outside of the hotel to Hong Kong Island. Everyone is really looking forward to getting stuck into training ahead of Friday's kick-off against China.

Cheers

Ollie 

THE FABS ARE OUT IN FORCE!

England Sevens Captain Ollie Phillips reports exclusively from camp at the Hong Kong Sevens.

WE have just returned to the hotel after beating China 54-0 in our first pool match of the tournament and even though it was raining the fans were out in force and the atmosphere was amazing. It was great to get the first match out of the way and it was a fantastic result but now we need to concentrate and focus on facing Japan tomorrow. 

Earlier today around 40 England Rugby Travel supporters came to watch us train in So Kong Po. It was really nice to see so many of them out, it really gave the boys a boost. We had some photos taken with them and stayed around after training for a chat. 

Yesterday we had a day off so a few of the boys went up to The Peak, it's a view point from right up on the mountain and they got some great photos. I went shopping to Mongkok market and ended up buying two tailored overcoats, one is dark green tartan and the other is beige and blue chequered squares, perfect for long country walks!

Tonight we are just going to have some dinner and get an early night ready for tomorrow. After Japan we face Wales which will be a massive match and I can't wait.

Cheers

Ollie