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'Nick Phipps gave me a few pointers on how to get settled'
Joe Powell has credited fellow Aussie Nick Phipps – the player he has replaced as London Irish scrum-half for the 2022/23 season – with providing him advice to help smooth the transition from life in Australia to England. The 28-year-old, who was capped four times by the Wallabies, has arrived at the Gallagher Premiership club as a straight swap for Phipps, the 33-year-old who won 72 caps for his country.
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It was May 30 when Phipps was named by the Irish as one of the eleven players who would leave them at the end of the 2021/22 season and he still has to source himself a new club, writing on his Twitter bio that he is “currently on gardening leave”.
In the meantime, Powell, his fellow countryman, has checked in at Irish and has been complimentary about what Phipps had told him about the club and about the challenge of adjusting to the way of life in England compared to back home in Australia.
“I suppose it makes it easier knowing a few of the boys before I came over here, Nick Phipps gave me a few pointers on how to get settled so it definitely smooths moving in when you’re aware of a few of the guys before arriving,” explained Powell in an interview on the London Irish website.
“Everywhere you go in rugby, there are a lot of parallels you can draw between teams but the boys have been so welcoming to me and a lot of the new lads. We’re starting to get to know each other really well, having a few barbeques with the boys and increasing our rapport with each other.”
From the Giteau Law to overseas contracts, ex-Australia scrum-half Nick Phipps has plenty to say about the recent Wallabies revival under Dave Rennie… ?#Wallabies #TRC #LIRvLEIhttps://t.co/gDrKc8bTc7
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 6, 2021
Powell is the latest Australian to hook up with Irish, joining fellow Aussie players Ollie Hoskins, Adam Coleman, Curtis Rona and Rob Simmons and being coached by Brad Davis and Les Kiss. His success in the sport is unusual in that he had to step away from it early in his career as it wasn’t so successful, the half-back making do with work as a carpenter before eventually making it big in rugby.
“I came out of school not really knowing what I really wanted to do, I gave uni a try for a little bit and did a little bit of travelling,” he continued. “Playing for the Australian U20s was an honour but I was still unsure of what I wanted to continue with, so I picked up a carpentry apprenticeship which I did for around a year-and-a-half in my hometown of Canberra.
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“I did a couple of pre-seasons with ACT Brumbies and after they had a few injuries I got the call-up to represent them, and it went from there for six seasons.” From there he switched to the Rebels for a couple of years before now heading to London.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments