He played representative level rugby union (RU) for Junior All Blacks (New Zealand Schoolboys), and representative level rugby league (RL) for Other Nationalities and Rugby League XIII, and at club level for Bradford Northern and Keighley, as a fullback.
[1] Phillips played fullback, and scored three conversions in Bradford Northern's 6-13 defeat by Wigan in the Championship Final during the 1951–52 season at Leeds Road, Huddersfield on Saturday 10 May 1952.
He spent three seasons at the club, playing 80 games and scoring 20 tries and 225 goals.
[5] In 1964, Phillips, along with former team-mate Trevor Foster, helped to lead a campaign which resulted in the reformation of Bradford Northern after the club folded a year earlier due to increasing financial difficulties.
[4] Phillips died on 16 May 1969 (the day before the 1968–69 Challenge Cup Final) in a hotel in London, aged 44, leaving a wife; Margaret, and three children; Catherine, Charles and Joseph.