My Life in Rugby: Jon Phillips – former Northampton and Bedford lock
There were around 6,000 in the ground, a lot then, and Franklin’s Gardens still had the old wooden stand and the man in a rowing boat behind one of the goals to fish balls out of a lake. I also remember Jason Leonard eating a cheeseburger just before kick-off!
I’d been playing for Saints for quite a few years, having been spotted by Geoff Wright and Keith Picton, two youth team coaches who had a huge impact on so many players. Sadly, Keith died recently and we’re all planning a get-together to pay our respects.
My Saints debut came at 16 against Rugby Lions in the old First Division. To be chosen to play so young was a huge privilege. There must have been an outbreak of cholera or they’d just got to the bottom of the list of people to ring!
While the game was nowhere near as fast or probably as physical in terms of tackling back then, the dark arts were much more prevalent. As a young lad, you soon got taught a few lessons and I remember an old Bath forward called Nick Maslen giving me a particularly painful one at the Rec. I think I was a bit daft and people kept hitting me in the face because it didn’t hurt as much.
I was working for a local engineering firm in those amateur days so when the game went pro it was an opportunity not to be missed. Sadly, it was an ill-fated first season as we went down under Ian McGeechan – hardly the most auspicious of starts as a full-time player!
Thankfully, we came straight back up and stayed in the top flight until the year after I left to join Bedford in 2004. Someone told me the other day I’d played the third-most Premiership games at lock as a Saintsman; I was robust if nothing else.
My standout moment at the club was winning the Heineken Cup in 2000. We squeaked home in the tightest of games, 9-8.
Munster were piling the pressure on and we were defending for our lives by the time I came on with about 10 minutes to go. We had a lineout just outside our 22 and I remember thinking: “Crikey Jon, you’d better not stuff this up.”
Thankfully, we managed to retain possession and see out the rest of the game. Winning the Cup in England made it extra special because family and friends shared in our success and we celebrated long and hard back at Franklin’s Gardens.
I returned to Twickenham in 2005 with Bedford and won my second winner’s medal after we beat Plymouth 14-13 in the Powergen Shield final. We were behind for most of the game but Leigh Hinton clinched it with a late penalty. If we were left with a mountain to climb that day, it was nothing to my expedition to Everest a month later in aid of Spire – Supporting Paraplegics in Rugby Enterprise – and Show Racism the Red Card.
I enjoyed four good years at Bedford playing over 100 games alongside some really good young lads and other old lags like myself as well as some future England internationals like Mouritz Botha, Dan Cole and Tom Youngs, who was a centre back then.
After I left in 2008, I had a year back at my local club Peterborough before spending two years at Old Albanians under James Shanahan, during which time we won promotion.
For the last 10 years, I’ve headed up the rugby operation at Moulton College; we run the AASE Programme for Saints. I also coach at Oundle RFC.
