Unfulfilled talent . . .unfinished business . . .
Published on 13 Oct 2011

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interview Injury ruined Tom Philip’s blossoming career, but he still hankers after the big time, writes Alasdair Reid

From even the most cursory glance at Tom Philip’s medical history, you would probably conjure a picture in which he spends his days strapped to a gurney, waited on hand and foot by an attentive team of nurses, his vital functions sustained by a network of tubes and wires sprouting from every corner of his body.

You certainly wouldn’t imagine a figure as impressively muscled and glowing with good health as the one who is sitting in the boardroom of Hawke and Hunter, the boutique hotel and restaurant in the centre of Edinburgh. Yet this is indeed the same Tom Philip whose battles for fitness produced more medical dramas than a boxed set of Casualty DVDs, and whose paltry haul of Test caps remains an absurdly meagre reflection of his underlying talent.

There is, unavoidably, an air of poignancy in any encounter with Philip. Over the past 40 years, perhaps only Andy Irvine and Gregor Townsend have created the kind of stir in Scottish rugby circles as did the teenage centre when he emerged from the ranks of Glasgow Hawks nine years ago, signed a professional contract with Edinburgh and was fast-tracked into the Scotland side at the age of 20.

There, though, the comparisons end. Irvine and Townsend went on to star for the Lions, set Scottish cap records and become respected figures throughout the sport, while Philip’s top-fight career was over almost before it had begun. He played in all Scotland’s games in the 2004 Six Nations Championship, but the years that followed were lost in a blur of complex and interrelated groin and back injuries, slipping out of the professional ranks a couple of years later.

A tragic figure? A lost and unfulfilled talent? Maybe a bit of both, but spare your tears, for the last thing Philip wants is sympathy. Sure, he would have written his life’s script differently if he had a chance, but he is certainly not tortured by the fact it took the turns it did.

“I have accepted that I’m not doing it any more,” he says firmly. “It doesn’t really matter whether I think I could still be out there; I’ve accepted the fact I’m not. There’s lots of guys like me. I worked hard for four or five years trying to get better, so I feel I did everything I could.”

Actually, it’s not quite as simple as that. He left the Scottish Rugby Union’s employment five years ago, but retained his contact with rugby by coaching Edinburgh Accies’ backs. He also managed to get himself back on the pitch for a handful of games with the Accies, but injuries old and new restricted his outings. Last year, he switched to rugby league, turning out for Whitehaven; this year, he stuck with the 13-man code, playing for South Wales Scorpions.

Again, a groin problem held him back, and he played just one game for the Scorpions. And yet, still just 28, Philip clearly keeps himself in such good shape that it is easy to imagine him slipping back into his playing kit and doing a shift again. “It can be sad to watch international games, knowing what I’m still capable of,” he says. “I watch these games and think I could give it a good shot.”

Philip toyed with the idea of a media career, but his time at the moment is fully taken up by his involvement with Everything 4 Rugby, an Edinburgh-based business – the former Scotland No.8 Simon Taylor and the England centre Tom May are also involved – which supplies rugby clubs with both beverages and training equipment. Effectively, the drinks side subsidises the rugby side, the idea being that participating clubs benefit from bulk discounts on both.

“I’m still passionate about rugby. If I can’t get that passion out by playing, which I wish I could, this business is another outlet. If I can help that way, then that will fulfil me.

“Some clubs have pretty good equipment, but some are using stuff that’s 10 or 20 years old: tackle bags that are waterlogged, missing handles, things like that. You can’t perform if you’re not training with proper equipment. Too many clubs are using old, tatty equipment that just doesn’t do the job any more.

“Good equipment makes a big difference. It can make a huge difference to young guy just to have a numbered training top instead of some tatty old T-shirt that he played in at school. Things like that have been sorted out at the top level, but would be great if amateur clubs could work that way as well.”

It could also encourage Philip to consider playing again. It is easy to suspect that part of his reticence about getting back on a pitch is that doing so would immediately bring huge pressure and media expectation, but he also makes the valid point that any return to action would have to be with a side that had appropriate medical resources to care for the after-effects of his old injuries.

“I still like to compete and play rugby, which is why I went to rugby league. I know that if I started playing for a club in Scotland, there would be a lot of attention and people would be asking what I might do next. I don’t really need that. I’d just want to go out and play.”

He also has a dream of becoming a dual-code international, playing rugby league for Scotland. All things considered, and especially given the rough time he’s had of it down the years, it is perhaps surprising that Philip retains even that ambition.

Plenty of people have told him to give it a rest, to forget about playing rugby at all. But few of them were born with his talent. And if the point of sport is to be as good as you can be, there’s no question that Tom Philip has unfinished business.

n www.everything4rugby.com

This article was posted on 13-Oct-2011, 06:33 by Hugh Barrow.