IRELAND SEALED THEIR Six Nations title last weekend in Dublin and another Irishman tasted international success as Georgia claimed yet another Rugby Europe Championship crown by beating Portugal.
Former Connacht player and coach Conor McPhillips is now Georgia’s attack coach, working alongside Richard Cockerill as the ‘Lelos’ secured their seventh consecutive title in the second tier of European rugby.
Georgia have been utterly dominant in this competition, with a win rate of 85.6% since 2000. This year, they won all three pool games and had convincing wins over Romania and the Portuguese in the knock-out stages.
As they celebrated on Sunday night, the usual hope of getting a seat at the top table in the Six Nations was part of the Georgians’ conversation.
“All the people who have been here longer than us – the staff, the board, the CEO – they all crave that,” says McPhillips.
“They want to be playing at the top level with summer and November Tests but also the Six Nations.
“The powers that be will decide whether it’s relegation or play-off, that’s out of our control, but it’s something Georgia really want. We want to be banging on the door and giving the people who make decisions those reasons to get them in there.”
McPhillips has had an exciting experience with Georgia since joining Cockerill’s coaching staff at the start of the year. This is the latest step in an interesting coaching journey for the Dublin man.
He played for Connacht more than 100 times from 2003 to 2009 and was the province’s top try scorer until Fionn Carr broke that record.
McPhillips also featured for the Ireland U21s, Ireland A, and the Ireland 7s team. He began player-coaching with St Mary’s College RFC and then Eric Elwood brought him back to Connacht as an analyst in 2005.
That role eventually expanded into an assistant coaching role under Pat Lam in 2015 so McPhillips was part of the coaching ticket that guided the western province to their stunning 2016 Pro12 title when they played a scintillating style of attacking rugby.
“Credit to Pat, he saw the game that way and got buy-in even though it was different,” says McPhillips. “I was along for the ride, helping where I could. I loved the set-piece side of things and learned a lot on the phase side of things.”
McPhillips took on responsibility for Connacht’s backs in 2016 and then joined Lam in Bristol as his attack coach in 2017. McPhillips was with the English club until the end of last season, impressing with his creative work with their attack.
“Pat was my boss, my mentor, but he’s also a really good friend,” says McPhillips. “I owe a lot to him. He gave me an opportunity to do what I wanted to do in Connacht and then he took me to Bristol.”
McPhillips had lined up a move to join Declan Kidney and Les Kiss at London Irish ahead of this season but the club collapsed and he was left without work for around seven months.
Initially, it was good to decompress after six intense years with Bristol.
“It’s like being in a tumble dryer, you’re getting spun around every week,” says McPhillips, who used the time to visit clubs like Harlequins, Cardiff, and Ulster, observing how they worked.
But there was always the hunger to jump back in when the right opportunity came up. McPhillips’ family are happily settled in Bristol so the short-term nature of the role with Georgia was appealing, as was the chance to do something new.
New Zealander Cory Brown, who McPhillips knew from their time working together in Connacht, connected him with the Georgians and new boss Cockerill gave him a call. McPhillips and Cockerill quickly sensed they would be a good match.
“I hadn’t coached international rugby before but it was always something I wanted to do,” says McPhillips. “It’s short bursts and really intense.
“Cockers has his strengths where he knows the scrum, the breakdown, the forwards, and he gives you a big picture of what he wants, then lets you crack on. We chat about stuff like kick plan and attack strategy, we’re aligned, then he lets you roll with that, coach it, preview it, review it. I enjoy his company as well.”
McPhillips moved to Tbilisi for six weeks to base himself with the squad for this Rugby Europe Championship, landing into show but soon enjoying the much milder weather in a city he found easy to settle into.
“Georgians are known for their welcoming culture, everything is based around food and drink,” says McPhillips.
“They love entertaining people and showing off their country and how good their food is. Tbilisi is very progressive, there’s a lot of investment going into the infrastructure.”
While the Georgians aren’t backed by the financial might of the biggest rugby unions, McPhillips explains that their facilities in Tbilisi are good.
The strength of spirit in the group has stood out to him.
“They are very family-oriented,” he says. “They’re big on respect and they’re really tight. They greet each other with a hug and a kiss every morning, they’re very loving. If kids or family are there, there’s a massive amount of respect there. And that bleeds through into the rugby – they work so hard for each other.”
As is well known, the Georgians aren’t shy when it comes to physicality. Their coaches don’t tend to do much contact work with them during training weeks because they know the players will bring it on game day.
They have great depth in the prop positions, with McPhillips saying they’re at least six deep in looseheads and tightheads at French clubs. But he is as excited about working with their combative, skillful back row players and a new wave of youthful backline talent.
21-year-old sensation Davit Niniashvili, a fullback/wing who plays club rugby with Lyon, is the poster boy but others are helping to change the perception of Georgian rugby.
“Any time anyone talks about Georgia, it’s their big scrum, their big pack, that they’ll kick,” says McPhillips, “but the Georgian U20s have been good for the last few years and the age profile in our squad is good now, but that’s also helping the style of play.”
Georgia scored 15 tries in their three pool games in the Rugby Europe Championship, then bagged six in the semi-final against Romania and another four in the decider as they pulled clear of a dangerous Portugal team.
McPhillips will be back with the Georgians for a big summer as they take on Fiji, Japan, and Australia in the July Tests, important challenges for this group of players. If that goes well, the Georgian union are hoping Cockerill, McPhillips and co. might do this full World Cup cycle into the 2027 tournament.
McPhillips will make his decision based on his family but also rugby and it will be interesting to see if he attracts convincing proposals from elsewhere. He is surely a coach that the IRFU is tracking closely.
“I’m very open-minded,” says McPhillips when asked if he would consider a return to Irish rugby.
“I’d love to come back to Ireland at some stage but you have to be open-minded. You could be in Japan or Italy. I never thought I was going to be in Tbilisi.
“I’m going to ride the wave. But the IRFU is probably the best-run union in the world so it’s a good place to be.”
