15 February 2025, 1:30 AM
Phil Lewis doesn’t think of himself as a legend. But then again, neither did the blokes who played beside him at Kiama Rugby Club, even as they were running alongside Wallabies.Three Wallabies played for Kiama in those days – Geoff Shaw, Brian Weir and Garry Grey. Not bad for a country rugby club.I wasn’t the fastest, I wasn’t the biggest,” he says, with the kind of self-deprecation that makes you immediately warm to him. “But I was there.” And was he ever. Phil started his rugby journey in Wales before arriving in Sydney with wife Hazel in 1964 to both take up teaching posts in western Sydney.By the time he moved to the Illawarra in 1966, he was well and truly embedded in the game. He played for Kiama for a decade, captained, coached, and was part of the team that initiated, organised and won the inaugural Kiama Sevens.The 7’s that still flourishes and virtually kicks off the rugby season in NSW each year. His rugby career should have been enough for one lifetime. Back then, rugby union was a strictly amateur game.This photo, taken from an Illawarra Mercury article at the time, captures Phil Lewis during his rugby career. A talented hooker-forward and Illawarra Rugby Union captain, Lewis was selected for major representative squads. Despite his skills and dedication, he missed key opportunities to play internationally, because his employer wouldn’t grant him leave, one of the many challenges faced by amateur-era rugby players balancing work and sport.Rugby league, though? That was professional. And never the twain should meet - at least, not officially. But this was country footy. Players weren’t about to sit idle for half a weekend. “In the early days a few of the boys played union one day, league the next,” Phil recalls, barely suppressing a grin. “You could get banned for it, so they all played under a nom de plume. And if someone spotted them? Well, that was just their twin brother out there, wasn’t it?” But rugby, like life, changes. Phil stopped playing at 40 and, missing the game, took up refereeing. That didn’t quite work out. Turns out, refs don’t get invited for drinks. Or if they do, the conversations tend to be about everything they supposedly did wrong. So, Phil turned to golf instead. And, true to form, he didn’t just play - he helped found the Jamberoo Golf Club. A different game, but the same philosophy: sport is about community, about mateship, about belonging. Phil was President of the Jamberoo Golf Club for 20 years. And nothing embodied that more than the Brighton Hotel, Kiama Rugby’s de facto clubhouse. Players, coaches, visiting teams - all of them found their way there after a game. It wasn’t just about the beer. It was about the stories, the camaraderie, the history. When The Brighton was demolished in the 1980s, the whole town felt it. The rugby club built a new clubhouse at the showground, but something had shifted. The old ways were fading. These days, Phil channels his energy into something different, his voice. A long-time member of the Kiama Men's Probus Choir, he brings the same dedication and spirit to music as he did to rugby.He’s passionate about growing the choir’s numbers and even made a pitch to The Bugle to help spread the word. Phil doesn’t go to many games anymore.He watches from a distance, tells stories when asked. His memory is sharp, his love for the game is undiminished.And if you ever find yourself at a gathering where Phil Lewis is present, do yourself a favour, ask him about the time he found himself coaching a team that had no intention of listening.‘You give them a plan, and five minutes later, they’re doing something entirely different,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘But that is ‘Rugby’. The game flows, fifteen blokes of all shapes, sizes and talents combining to produce another game of rugby. - ‘ The Game they Play in Heaven’.
