{"id":352030,"date":"2011-03-31T08:20:53","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T08:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/31\/phillips-may-leave-ospreys-jones\/"},"modified":"2011-03-31T08:20:53","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T08:20:53","slug":"phillips-may-leave-ospreys-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/31\/phillips-may-leave-ospreys-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillips may leave Ospreys &#8211; Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"122.9357696567\">\n                    <span><br \/>\n  <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c784b11hillips_huw.jpg.jpg\" width=\"226\" height=\"282\" alt=\"Mike Phillips\" \/><\/p>\n<p>    Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips has won 51 international caps<br \/>\n  <\/span><br \/>\n<!-- empty related-stories for Wide -->                      <\/p>\n<p>Former Wales scrum-half Robert Jones believes Mike Phillips could leave the Ospreys at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips, whom the Ospreys failed to select in Edinburgh last week, could follow a clutch of other internationals out of the Liberty Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The Ospreys bolstered their squad by signing Samoa scrum-half Kahn Fotuali&#8217;i from Crusaders.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There has got to be a question mark over Mike Phillips&#8217; future,&#8221; said Jones.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously with them bringing in a new scrum-half from Canterbury Crusaders and no doubt having paid pretty good money to get him across I&#8217;d imagine they&#8217;d want him to play.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He Phillips is a talented individual, but whether he fits into the future down at the Ospreys is a big question mark at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He, no doubt, will be of interest to a lot of clubs out there, but being under contract there obviously is a price to pay should\u2026 he want to go.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But it might be on the basis of what has happened over the last couple of weeks that it could be something the Ospreys would consider.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Phillips could add to an exodus which has already seen James Hook, Gavin Henson, Lee Byrne and Craig Mitchell leave or about to leave the region.<\/p>\n<p>And during the Six Nations the Ospreys gave their younger players, such as scrum-half Rhys Webb, centre Ashley Beck and flanker Justin Tipuric, a run in the side.<\/p>\n<p>That proved a successful exercise as the region won seven matches on the trot.<\/p>\n<p>Jones believes that the run of success might have opened the region&#8217;s eyes to giving younger players more opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Rhys Webb is a young lad who has come through very strongly and certainly looks a player for the future down at the Ospreys or even within the Welsh set-up,&#8221; added Jones.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Ospreys want strength in depth but to have two players of such quality Philips and Fotuali&#8217;i and costing them an awful lot might mean they might look to offload Mike or Mike himself might look to move away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Ospreys over the last couple of months have begun to realise they are producing a lot of young talent and that young talent is playing well when it&#8217;s given the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think in their eyes, and probably in a lot of people&#8217;s eyes, that might be the way forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Phillips, who won his 50th international cap in Wales&#8217; Six Nations defeat in France, is contracted to the Ospreys until 2014 after signing a new big-money deal in March 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips, who joined the Ospreys from Cardiff Blues in April 2007 for a deal thought to be worth \u00a3700,000, has developed into the Wales and Lions scrum-half and will be a wanted man should the Ospreys let him leave.<\/p>\n<div readability=\"23.75\">\n           <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport2\/hi\/rugby_union\/12904141.stm#skip_feature_02\">Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"6\">\n<p>We need to push on, freshen up and bring the youngsters through<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\t<span>Ospreys head coach Sean Holley<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Big-money French clubs have already signed Hook and Byrne from the Ospreys and Top 14 giants would be favourite to sign him should Phillips depart the Welsh region.<\/p>\n<p>Experienced back-rowers Jerry Collins and Marty Holah are also set to leave the Liberty Stadium when their contracts expire in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>The Ospreys have signed Joe Bearman from the Dragons and Samoan George Stowers from London Irish so they have plenty of back-row cover.<\/p>\n<p>Ospreys coach Sean Holley has hinted that Collins and Holah will not be Ospreys players next season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are some intelligent people out there who will work it out,&#8221; Holley told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some overseas players have been real stalwarts for us, they are coming to the end of their career and maybe looking to make different decisions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to push on, freshen up and bring the youngsters through.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c784b11hillips_huw.jpg-150x150.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Read the article:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/go\/rss\/-\/sport1\/hi\/rugby_union\/12904141.stm\" title=\"Phillips may leave Ospreys - Jones\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phillips may leave Ospreys &#8211; Jones<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips has won 51 international caps Former Wales scrum-half Robert Jones believes Mike Phillips could leave the Ospreys at the end of the season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Phillips may leave Ospreys - Jones - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/31\/phillips-may-leave-ospreys-jones\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Phillips may leave Ospreys - Jones - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips has won 51 international caps Former Wales scrum-half Robert Jones believes Mike Phillips could leave the Ospreys at the end of the season.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c784b11hillips_huw.jpg.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/31\/phillips-may-leave-ospreys-jones\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/31\/phillips-may-leave-ospreys-jones\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Phillips may leave Ospreys &#8211; 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