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Sydney University Football Club’s Matt Philip became capped Wallaby No.915 in Australia’s 63-30 win over Japan in Yokohama last week.

When the 117kg second-rower was introduced to the action, replacing Adam Coleman for the second half, he became the 104th SUFC player to represent Australia.

A product of St Augustine’s College, Brookvale, the 199cm Philips represented Australian Schoolboys in 2012 before enrolling at Sydney University and joining SUFC.

His form in the Shute Shield earned him selection in the Australian Under 20 side in 2014 and from there he progressed to the Sydney Stars in the NRC in 2015 and then the Western Force in Super Rugby in 2016.

He became the first-choice lock at the Force in 2017 and was invited to play for the Barbarians against Australia prior to the Wallabies Spring tour of Japan and the British Isles.

Also on the Spring Tour, preparing for a Test against Wales this weekend, are SUFC teammates Bernard Foley, flanker Ben McCalman, halfback Nick Phipps and prop Tom Robertson.

While SUFC has five players on the Spring Tour, they also have two representatives in the Australian Sevens team to contest the Oceania Sevens tournament this weekend.

Henry Clunies-Ross and Matt Hood have been selected in the 12-man squad for the tournament which starts tomorrow (Friday) in Suva as a preliminary tournament to the World Rugby Sevens Series that kick-off in Dubai in early December.

The Men’s Oceania Championship event will see 13 teams from around the region vying to take the championship title from Fiji, including World Series core teams Australia, Samoa and New Zealand. The Men’s event will comprise of four pools consisting of Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Cook Islands, American Samoa, New Caledonia, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tuvalu.

The Women’s event has eight teams confirmed from around the region with Papua New Guinea looking to continue the impressive work from the 2016 Championship following their invitational appearance at the Sydney Sevens in February this year.

The Women’s event will comprise two pools consisting of New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti.

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