Adventpilez 2010 – December 19th: Gladrags 2; The Black Weekend Edition December 20, 2010

Now we’re successfully through ‘black weekend’ where all the world goes out to get their pre-christmas boogy on, our thoughts have once again turned to how well our boys turn out…

Alun Wyn gets his 'fashionably late' on

 

a whole pride of whistle-wearing lions

 

Alun Wyn's tour of all the cool parties continues. Luke Charteris is unamused by his flagrant gatecrashing.

You ain't seen this.... right?

and at the end of the night… some joker always decides Karaoke is a good idea…

The Morning After: Ah. Alun... you've got a bit of...oh, never mind... good night was it? <snigger>

Rawr Data Player Profile: Mike Phillips August 15, 2010

Some call him ‘The Spaniard’, others call him ‘Splinters’ and his mother called him ‘William’… All we know is… this is our Rawr Data on…

Mike Phillips

(William) Michael Phillips weighs in at 16st 5lb for his 6’3″ and 28 years.

Mike began his Rugby Career at age five for StClears RFC Under 9’s squad (BLESS!!!) and currently plays Scrum Half (9) in a style that is most often described as ‘Spiky’ but he has played both blind and openside flanker in his days playing locally for Camarthern RFC, where they deemed him ‘too big to be a scrum half’.

Career wise, so far Mike has been a bit of a floozy, having played for three of the four Welsh Regions having moved from Llanelli Scarlets to Cardiff Blues before eventually finding his home in Ospreylia, where he helps to make up the sadly small Welsh Speaking arm.

Pleasingly, the press LOVE him, which as ever is a swings and roundabouts situation, and though it lead to him suffering facial injuries in 2008 after a fan turned nasty on a night out, it does also lead to gems of articles in the Western Mail where he’s basically been winding them up and they’ve written a whole page on it – anyone remember the story last year about how post-op he’s got a “brand new knee, better than the old knee”? Clearly he is both the Lee Majors and the Ianto Jones of Welsh Rugby.

Recent times have thankfully, since the post lions tour Taxigate incident, seen only his love life hitting the headlines as he has been dating North Welsh popstrel Duffy after what appeared to be an acrimonious split from his previous lady. All we’re saying is that he and Duffy do look amusing together with his height and her lack of.

In 2009, Mike had the phone call all rugby players are secretly hoping for and accompanied Ian McGeechan and a few of his selected friends on the Lions Tour of South Africa, where he played in all three tests and scored some of the most electric tries of the entire tour. Sadly shortly after his return to Ospreys action he suffered an ankle injury which put paid to his participation in most of the season and all but the last game of the Six Nations but we’re sure he’ll once again go from strength to strength this season.

Words by Lauren, images by various