Ollie Phillips inspired by ‘hero’ Kevin Sinfield ahead of Atlantic Ocean challenge as race briefing brings back Jonah Lomu ‘sensation’
Ollie Phillips is set for a daunting challenge at sea.
When Kevin Sinfield crossed the finish line on his latest Herculean challenge a man in a rowing boat thousands of miles from Headingley doffed his cap.
Ollie Phillips is about to attempt on water what Sinfield has yet again done on land: raise a small fortune to bolster the fight against motor neurone disease.
Phillips, the former England sevens captain, is waiting for organisers of the World’s Toughest Row to tell him it is safe enough to leave port in the Canary Islands and paddle miles across the Atlantic Ocean.
He should have departed San Sebastian de La Gomera on Thursday with fellow Seas Life crew members Stuart Kershaw, Julian Evans and Tom Clowes. Then the storm winds arrived.
High seas challenge
The fleet are now due to take to the water on Sunday and if Sinfield’s 7 in 7 Together challenge was a trial of extreme endurance, encompassing seven ultramarathons in as many days, so too is what is about to unfold on the high seas.
“Three thousand miles to Antigua,” says Phillips. “We will run a shift pattern where we’re rowing two hours on, two hours off, continually, nonstop for up to 40 days.
“Every two hours you need to be on the oars, physically outputting power, off the back of at best an hour and a half sleep, living off crap freeze-dried food. The combination of all of that makes it tough.”
Phillips is no extreme sports rookie. The former sevens World Rugby player of the year has sailed round the world, swum the channel, cycled across America.
He has scaled some of the highest mountains and played in the most northerly rugby match at the Magnetic North Pole. His crew mates are all Everest summiteers.
How all of that helps in the coming weeks, Phillips has no idea.
“I hope it equips us really well because, psychologically, mentally and emotionally, we know what that hardship feels like,” he says. “We’ve experienced it, we’re comfortable in it, we don’t freak out about it.
“There’s a definite possibility that, particularly when the weather goes nuts, lots of crews freak out. Panic about stuff. That is only natural if you’ve never experienced something that extreme and that unpleasant, which it will be.
“There’ll be some boats that get rolled, so that is all going to be quite challenging. We’ve got the mental fortitude to deal with that, to manage and respond to that.
“But it’s the classic line Mike Tyson line of everyone’s the greatest boxer until they get punched in the face.
“Our training is good. We’ve spoken about how we will react to a marlin strike or to being rolled, how will we deal with the fatigue and what are our non-negotiables are in terms of how we operate and manage each other as a team.
“But none of us have rehearsed living 10 days in, 20 days in, off an hour’s sleep, every single shift change. I just don’t think you know how you’re going to react to that until you’re in it.”
Phillips watched Sinfield finish his challenge at the home of Leeds Rhinos on Sunday and was lost in admiration for a cross-code legend whose MND fund-raising has topped £11 million.
“What a hero, what a hero that bloke is, Jesus Christ!” said a man whose own challenge will benefit My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, Cure Parkinson’s, the Matt Hampson Foundation, the Clocktower Foundation, Shiplake C.E Primary School and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.
“What he has done and continues to do is inspirational.
“What we are doing is obviously different but every single effort that people make, every penny they raise – whether it’s rowing the Atlantic, running seven marathons in seven days, or just going outside and shaking the bucket or doing a cake sale – all of it contributes to raising awareness and funds to find cures for these bloody crippling and awful diseases.”
Phillips adds: “I’m fortunate enough to have been good friends with Doddie Weir, good friends with Lewis Moody, and a friend and have played against Ed Slater on many occasions. Nobody deserves this sentence, let alone these phenomenal human beings.
“What is so cruel is that you’re mentally aware of everything. You basically witness it and watch your body die. That is horrific. Horrendous.”
What Sinfield and now Phillips are doing epitomises the best of rugby. It is a sport which rallies wonderfully in support of its community; in the case of these two men no matter what hardship they have to endure.
“My wife was definitely not a fan of this at the beginning. Not because she didn’t want to support me, but it’s worrying,” says Phillips. “She’s worried we’re going to die, being blunt. She wants her husband and the dad of our three young kids to come home.
“In one sense it’s a terrible time of year to be doing it because you want to be at home, to be near your kids and your family and all that good stuff.
“In another breath, it’s a brilliant time because your family have got Christmas, they are focused on their advent calendar, the Nativities they’re doing, and have family all around them.”
Phillips and his team each need to consume 6,000 calories a day to keep the engine ticking over and the 43-year old makes no secret of the fact he’s nervous.
On Wednesday night when we spoke he was expecting to head out into the Atlantic the following morning despite a forecast of 50 knot winds. He compared how he was feeling to his international rugby ‘debut’.
“I was 17, the sevens World Series was on at Twickenham, and I was one of a number of local players asked to turn up as reserves in case teams from afar had injuries,” he said.
“Fiji were about to play New Zealand in one semi-final and were a player short. I was called in and handed a 3XL shirt. I looked like a Fijian windsock.
“Jonah Lomu was playing for the Kiwis and when Fiji brought me on they stuck me on the opposite wing to Jonah, only for New Zealand to switch him across.
Bricked it
“It would be fair to say I bricked myself and that exact sensation was how I felt in the race briefing here. But no risk, no reward.
“I remember when I was younger, when I got my first team start for Newcastle and with England when I was playing in the sevens in my first series in Dubai, a lot of my thoughts amounted to, ‘Just don’t f**k this up. Make sure you play well so that you’re in the team again the next game’.
“My psyche became, ‘I don’t want to get it wrong so I still get picked’. But that can be quite a negative emotion, because you then you don’t actually enjoy the moment as you’re so paranoid about missing out on the next one.
“On this trip I want to make sure that every two-hour shift, even if I am absolutely ball-bagged, which I’m sure I will be, I’m like, ‘I’m up for this, I love it. I’m grateful for feeling f**ked. I’m grateful for all of it’.
“One of my crew mates said to me the other day. ‘I’m not running away from life, but I don’t want life to run away from me’. I couldn’t put it better.”
If you would like to support Ollie Phillips and his Seas Life crew, you can donate here.