WALES scrum half Mike Phillips has been defended by the player who aspires to take his place in the team.

Scarlets youngster Tavis Knoyle, who is out of the same mould as the much more experienced Phillips, admits to being surprised by the amount of criticism he took after the England game, though he bounced back against Scotland.

“It hasn’t been great and it’s not great for a player to hear stuff like that, you hear some comments from people with opinions but that’s the way it is,” said 20-year-old Knoyle, who has two caps to his name.

“People want what’s best and if they think you are not performing they’ll say how they feel, you’ve just got to take it on the chin.

“Mike is a strong character and he doesn’t pay any attention to it. You just have to respond on the field, and Mike does, he does that very well.

“I was looking at his game to try to see what he does that I should learn to do. His tackling in the second half was outstanding, I was behind the posts warming up and you could see that some of Mike’s defensive play was brilliant.

“The stick given to him doesn’t put me off at all, he’s a great player and he’s responded well to whatever criticism has come his way.

“Mike is a good bloke, the same as Dwayne (Peel), they’re great people. What I have to do is try to fight them as best I can for the position, rather than just stay on the track of just looking at them and supporting them, I have to change my mindset around.

“It’s great to be compared with an excellent player like Mike, but I like to play my own game, I want to be myself, perhaps offer something different.

“I want to work at my all-round game, I’m still young and want to work at the basics.

“You always want to go as far as you can, that’s what I want to do, keep pushing with the next step being to get the jersey.”

Knoyle believes Wales are still in with a title chance despite the heavy concentration on Satur-day’s other Six Nations clash between England and France, both unbeaten.

“Of course we’re capable of challenging, we have excellent players here and are more than capable of doing that,” he said. “We’ve been working hard and doing our best to perform, if we do that we’ll be fine.

“Being involved in the Six Nations is excellent for me and I’m just trying to push as hard as I can.

“Italy will be a tough team, after losing twice they’ll come out and try to go hell for leather. They won’t be a pushover, but I think we’ll be strong enough to come through.”