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About Phil Wilkins
About Phil Wilkins
Since going into bat for journalism as a Fairfax copyboy in 1958, Phil Wilkins has been a leader in Australian sports journalism, leaving an indelible mark not only in the minds of his colleagues but also on the sports he covered. From test matches, one-day internationals, cricket world cups and rugby internationals; his life has been spent on the road and in the tough arena of tight deadlines, whether it be filing a domestic one-day cricket match or from an overseas international. As a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun, The Sun-Herald and The Australian, his peers attest that he's never played a bad shot.
Business as usual in Boks office
South African rugby is charged with confidence again, writes Phil Wilkins.
Unlikely finalists Chiefs turn up in a higher place
THE Chiefs' back line would do honour to the silver fern-crested
jersey of the All Blacks, but captain Jono Gibbes is in reluctant
retirement and Test enforcer Keith Robinson departed with New
Zealand's demise in the World Cup.
Home sweet home in Brumbies' front row
EVEN before the devastating firestorm, the most vigilant watcher
behind the giant telescope at Mount Stromlo Observatory would have
struggled to keep track of the movements of Brumbies hooker Huia
Edmonds.
Canes won't faze Ma'afu - he's mixed it with the best
FOOTBALL boots don't come heavier than those of England's destructive front-rower Andrew Sheridan, and wearing the Barbarians jumper at Twickenham against rugby's World Cup champions, South Africa, carries few greater honours.
Travelling man back where it all began before packing again
Scott Staniforth would love a win over his old team on home soil, writes Phil Wilkins.
Mitchell's Mr Fix-It taking care of back-row business
THE Mr Plods of European rugby union remain infatuated with the draught-horse era, but don't let the Western Force hear criticism of the hell-for-leather football of the Experimental Law Variations.
Tusk, tusk: who said elephants were extinct?
THE bull elephants have extracted themselves from their anticipated ELVs graveyard and are emerging as a massive force of the Super 14 tournament, just as they were in South Africa's success in the 2007 World Cup.
Sydney imports add to Reds' confident win against Sharks
WHEN rugby union turned professional in 1995, it triggered a flourishing export trade in players from Sydney, well illustrated in the Queensland Reds' stunning Super 14 defeat of the South African Sharks at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane last Saturday.
From top try to trying times and back again
It is almost taboo to entrust a rugby prop with anything over a 10-metre sprint, but back in 2006 Queensland's hefty loose-head Greg Holmes raced into legendary status for the try of his life from beyond halfway at Subiaco Oval against Ireland.
Hand swaps easy life for capital punishment
Unfinished business lured Ben Hand back to the Brumbies, writes
Phil Wilkins.
Scrum packs wallop thanks to a giant refreshed
Guy Shepherdson, unfairly made a scapegoat for Australia's World
Cup exit, still prefers to look forward, not back, writes Phil
Wilkins.
Mark's story: a challenge of the human spirit
A freak sporting accident robbed this genial man of his mobility but he's hopeful of recovery, writes Phil Wilkins.
ELVs to stay for one more year at least
The Australian Rugby Union will continue the worldwide trialling of the Experimental Law Variations at all levels next year following the International Rugby Board's decision to prolong its analysis of the laws introduced to make rugby more appealing without damaging its traditions.
An anniversary to remember
Munster's win over the All Blacks in 1978 is the stuff of legend, writes Phil Wilkins.
Mumm's blood runs … black
New Wallaby Dean Mumm is hunting a start against his mother
country, writes Phil Wilkins.
New boy Brown at home among the Wallabies' pigs
Richard Brown grew up dodging razorbacks, now he's confronting some
of the world's most menacing forwards, writes Phil Wilkins.
Beale might have made the difference
Somewhere in the turmoil between the half-century hell of the Wallabies' Test defeat in Johannesburg and the personal anguish of their Bledisloe Cup loss to his native New Zealand in Brisbane, coach Robbie Deans thought about Kurtley Beale.
Wallabies must shed cotton wool to win
THAT titan of Australian rugby union, Alex Evans, arrived back in Brisbane from the coronation of the new King of Tonga in time to tune into the coverage of the All Blacks beating the Wallabies, and rued the opportunity lost.
Like Bok Bakkies, Horwill won't back down when the going gets tough
IT'S a fine strand of razor wire separating the legality of rough house rugby union from an act of pure thuggery.
Lomu the giant game-breaker in greatest of all Bledisloe battles
SINCE its infancy in the 12th century, rugby union has evolved from the "town game" for hundreds of ruffians on England's village greens to a sport for people of 120 nations, if occasionally emerging like a reluctant dinosaur from the shell.
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