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'Mike Phillips was drunk all the time'

(Photo by Ziyaad Douglas/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Ex-Bayonne president Alain Afflelou has recounted the October 2013 sacking of Mike Phillips, the long-time Wales scrum-half who left Ospreys and moved to the French Top 14 following his country’s run to the World Cup semi-finals in 2011. Phillips was fired after turning up drunk to a team analysis meeting following Bayonne’s Challenge Cup loss to Wasps. 

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Six-and-a-half years have passed since that abrupt parting of the ways and Afflelou, who himself exited Bayonne after a proposed merger with Biarritz collapsed, has recalled the departure of Phillips who played 40 Top 14 matches for the club. 

“We recruited players who did not want to fight,” said Afflelou in an interview with Midi Olympique, the French bi-weekly rugby newspaper. “We had brought in the Welsh scrum-half… and I said that we could not play with ‘pochards’ (boozers). 

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“The guy was drunk all the time. In the aftermath of a stinging defeat in Bayonne, he even arrived drunk at the video session the next day. Not just a little, eh. Seriously drunk. There, I said stop and I fired him.”

Phillips, who earned the last of his 94 Wales caps in an August 2015 match versus Ireland, was quickly snapped up by Racing, a move Afflelou wasn’t happy with.

“Racing recruited him, which lacked a bit of class. But he didn’t spark off there either… they were spending crazy money at the time on the transfer market,” he said, strengthening his case by referencing Benjamin Fall.

“In 2010, we had this young winger who had qualities. Racing got on it. Francis Salagoity came to me and said, ‘What do we do? Do we increase it?’ I said: ‘This guy plays six games a year. When he is not injured, he is in the France team. We will take the €400,000 euros from Racing and let him go’. For him, the bad series continued in the Hauts-de-Seine and then in Montpellier.”

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SK 41 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

The way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.

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