Phil Gifford

A prolific writer and broadcaster, Phil Gifford has reported on every Rugby World Cup since 1987, and will be in Britain to cover the 2015 tournament.He has won nine New Zealand radio awards, has twice been judged New Zealand sportswriter of the year, and three times New Zealand sports columnist of the year. He has also won two Dulux national print awards for news reporting, in 1976 (on the Captaine Bouganville shipwreck) and 1981 (on the Springbok tour). In 1973 Phil invented the satirical rugby character Loosehead Len, and wrote his columns for 32 years. He continues to write a column in the Sunday Star-Times, and in 2014 was a member of the Fairfax Media team at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. In 2010 Phil was honoured with the SPARC lifetime achievement award for services to sports journalism.His work includes biographies of Joe Stanley, Grizz Wyllie, Mike Brewer, Peter Fatialofa and Todd Blackadder. His own memoir, Loose Amongst the Legends, was named one of the biographies of the year in the New Zealand Listener’s 100 best books of 2014.Phil lives in Auckland, with his wife Jan.