Rugby Union: Welsh star Phillips is on a Lions mission

Wales star Mike Phillips is ready to raise the performance bar in pursuit of a prize that has eluded the British and Irish Lions since 1997.

Phillips hit arguably the form his life in South Africa four years ago but it was still not enough to prevent an agonising 2-1 Test series defeat.

The Lions’ previous mission to Springbok territory 12 years earlier remains their last series-winning tour and Australia now await Phillips and company, with defeat Down Under not something he intends contemplating.

“The Lions is the ultimate,” Wales and Bayonne scrum-half Phillips said.

“You want to play the best and, fortunately for me, I thought I played some of my best stuff (in South Africa).

“You are surrounded by great players as well, which tends to bring out the best in you. You don’t want to let anyone down. You know what big occasions they are and what they mean to everyone.

“I was pretty pleased with my performances (in 2009) but I have got to go one step further now, top those performances and be part of a Test series-winning team.

“We lost the series but to finish on a high note like we did and win the third Test was important for this tour and for the players coming into it.

“The 2009 tour was a huge success in many ways and it was just gutting we lost the series, but margins in those games are very small.

“It’s important now we don’t make the same mistakes in this one and we come away with a series win.”

Phillips will line up in today’s opener against the Barbarians at Hong Kong Stadium. With fellow scrum-halves Ben Youngs and Conor Murray also on tour, all three number nines might get just a couple of starts before the first Test in Brisbane on June 22.

“Obviously, we are all building for the Test series and we all want those jerseys,” Phillips said.

“Any opportunity you get you have got to take it and show how much you want it and how much it means to you. Hopefully, I will take my opportunity at the weekend.”

Phillips will be up against a familiar foe today in Dimitri Yachvili, who is a key player for Biarritz, Bayonne’s Top 14 neighbours situated just five miles down the road in south-west France.

And 30-year-old Phillips feels he has benefited from his time playing in France, especially experiencing the fierce Bayonne-Biarritz rivalry.

When the clubs met in November 2011, Biarritz number eight Imanol Harinordoquy’s father ran on to the pitch and became involved in a brawl with players.

“Bayonne and Biarritz are big rivals, and it will be nice to play against him (Yachvili),” Phillips said.

“He is thought of highly in world rugby, so it will be nice to match up against him and hopefully do well.

“The derby games are pretty special, to be honest. The atmosphere is incredible and you have parents running on the field and fighting – Harinordoquy’s old man came on swinging a few – so it is an experience in itself.”

Phillips’ Wales colleague Jamie Roberts took Lions’ man-of-the-series honours in South Africa four years ago, when he forged a brilliant midfield partnership with Irish talisman Brian O’Driscoll. And he is also back for more this time around starting today when he lines up alongside his regular Wales centre colleague Jonathan Davies in what will be a fiercely contested clash.

“In 2009 I played some of the best rugby of my career in the Lions shirt. That’s what I desperately want to recreate,” Roberts said.

“Ultimately, I want to win a Lions Test series with these guys. It’s not about individual goals, it’s about being part of a tour that wins.”

Lions: S Hogg (Scotland); A Cuthbert (Wales), J Davies (Wales), J Roberts (Wales), S Maitland (Scotland); O Farrell (England), M Phillips (Wales); M Vunipola (England), R Hibbard (Wales), A Jones (Wales), R Gray (Scotland), P O’Connell (Ireland, capt), D Lydiate (Wales), J Tipuric (Wales), T Faletau (Wales). Subs: T Youngs (England), C Healy (Ireland), M Stevens (England), A-W Jones (Wales), J Heaslip (Ireland), C Murray (Ireland), J Sexton (Ireland), G North (Wales).

Barbarians: J Payne; J Rokocoko, E Daly, C Laulala, T Ngwenya; N Evans, D Yachvili; P James, S Brits, M Castrogiovanni, M Wentzel, D Mumm, S Manoa, S Jones, S Parisse (capt). Subs: L Ghiraldini, D Jones, A Lo Cicero, J Hamilton, I Harinordoquy, K Fotuali’i, J Hook, M Tindall or R Varty.

Rugby Union: Welsh star Phillips is on a Lions mission