Phil Clarke

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Phil Clarke
Personal information
Full name Phil Clarke
Place of birth Wigan, England
Club information
Position(s) Loose forward
Current club Retired
Senior clubs*
Years Club Apps (points)
1988 ‐ 95
1995 -1996		 Wigan
Sydney City Roosters		 154 (92)
12 (8)
Representative teams
England
Great Britain		 2
6

* Professional club appearances and points
counted for domestic first grade only.

Phil Clarke is a former English rugby league player.

Phil Clarke played for Wigan in the Rugby League Premiership. He also played for the Sydney City Roosters in Australia.

Clarke represented England at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup. Clarke has also represented Great Britain on numerous occasions.

Clarke's usual position was as a loose forward.

Phil Clarke is now a Sky Sports Rugby League pundit with plenty of experience in the game as a former Wigan Warriors and Sydney Roosters player and Great Britain captain. He is the son of Colin Clarke, another former Wigan player.

Clarke's playing career was cut short when he suffered a broken neck in his only season with Sydney. Although he made a full recovery, he was warned by doctors never to play Rugby League again.

He began working with Sky television in 1999 alongside Bill Arthur on Academy matches but nowadays he can be seen working with Eddie Hemmings and Mike "Stevo" Stephenson on Sky Sports Super League broadcasts and is respected for his in depth analysis of games and regularly "knocks sense" into colleague Mike Stephenson.

In March 2006 he quit his job as Great Britain team manager after five years, having become part of the GB set-up in 2001. His reasons for leaving were the "lack of leadership and direction" for the Great Britain team, and the lack of improvement in competitiveness against international opponents; adding that "Despite what's been said by the RFL and certain parts of the media, we're no closer now than we were 15 years ago."

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