There’s never a dull moment when Wallabies star Nick Phipps kicks back at home with his flatmates

KICKING back at home is fun and games for this rugby union star

Wallaby Nick Phipps on the rooftop of his North Bondi apartment. Pictures: Stephen Cooper

• Who: Nick Phipps plays rugby union for the Waratahs and Wallabies and recently took out the title of Mens’ Health magazine Man of the Year

• Where: Apartment in North Bondi he shares with good friends Michael Hodge and Bernard Foley, a teammate from the Waraths and the Wallabies

• Favourite thing: Lounge I picked this up from Oz Design at the beginning of the year. We needed a good couch for our new home and this one’s really deep and you can fit about five people on it comfortably

• Inspiration: I love going into training and getting to hang out with some of my best mates and meeting new people every time I play. When you get so close to people you certainly don’t want to let them down in anything you do

• Home is: Where you’re happy. I’m lucky that I get to live with two great blokes in Bondi in a great part of the world

WALLABIES star Nick Phipps is always proud to get out on the field and represent Australia, but the rugby scrum half also loves kicking back at home, away from the limelight.

Nick shares an apartment in North Bondi with two good mates, schoolteacher Michael Hodge and Bernard Foley, a teammate from the Waratahs and the Wallabies.

“It’s great to relax and it makes me really happy to be able to get away from the game a little bit and have a laugh with some of the boys,” Nick says.

“It’s a pretty dynamic house, there’s never a dull moment.”

Nick has known his flatmates for about nine years, since first-year university days.

“We started playing colts together at Sydney uni,” he says.

“The first few years out of school are some of the best times you have and we’ve stuck together ever since.”

AT HOME WITH JOHANNA ALLEN

In a household where chores are shared, it’s inevitable there will be some conflict, but the flatmates have worked out their own way to resolve issues — they’ve set up a golf putting green in the hallway.

“We use it to decide a lot of things in the house,” says Nick. “We trip over it late at night but it’s good for settling disputes.”

Both Nick’s grandfather and great uncle also played for the Wallabies and right now his focus is on training, especially as the Wallabies are part way through the 2016 Bledisloe Cup, three Tests between Australia and the All Blacks. Having lost the first two games, fingers will be crossed on October 22 when the Wallabies face their trans-Tasman rivals again, in Auckland.

Pictures Stephen Cooper

Mexican ornament: I got this porcelain skull during a road trip in Mexico and
it reminds me of some good times over there with some of the boys, my friends from university.

Wallabies jersey: I’m pretty lucky to be doing what I do. It’s always special representing not only yourself but the rest of the country; it’s never lost upon us.

Tagine: This is a Moroccan slow cooker and it’s a different way of cooking things. We use it about twice a week. It’s a cracker.

Putting mat: This sits in our hallway and we use it to decide a lot of things around the house.

Surfboard shelf: I don’t surf at all, I’m terrified of sharks but one of my old housemates was throwing this out and I thought I could use it as a shelf..

Aquabumps photos: I’ve got three Aquabumps pictures in my room. One’s from my sister, one’s from my parents and I picked one up myself as well. They’re by a local photographer and he’s got a great store in Bondi.

Special photo: This is of me with my former housemates. We all shared a place in Bondi and we nicknamed it the Pentagon.