During his playing days, the World Cup-winning flanker Richard Hill always kept a low profile and in his current role as England team manager, talent spotter and one of Steve Borthwick’s key lieutenants, it seems that little has changed.
Just ask England’s newest back-row Chandler Cunningham-South, who only recently learned that the 50-year-old who had been giving him a few tips for the last couple of years, who “sounds like he knows what he’s talking about”, was speaking from considerable experience. “He found out that I played in the World Cup, probably three months ago,” says Hill. “Chandler’s not that fussed about what’s gone on in the past. He wanted to know why I didn’t tell him. I said it had no bearing on what we’re trying to achieve, which was about him, not me.”
It is a fitting anecdote from someone dubbed the “Silent Assassin” during his playing days, who was described as coming “from the shadows, from the darkness” by his great French rival, Serge Betsen, and one that epitomises Hill’s England role. Hill does not seek the limelight and has rarely spoken to the media in more than seven years as team manager.
Hill started working for the Rugby Football Union in 2014 with a focus on pathway development and in a mentoring role for back-rowers. He was appointed team manager by Eddie Jones in 2016 and when Borthwick took charge a year ago, Hill’s role took on greater prominence. The current head coach leans heavily on him when it comes to talent identification and development while he plays a key role in maintaining and improving club-country relations.
His influence is only too evident when casting an eye over England’s matchday squad in last weekend’s victory over Italy. One of the first things Jones did as head coach was task Hill with finding some openside flankers in the days when England had an abundance of “six-and-a-halfs” but not enough sevens. Not long later, Hill brought Sam Underhill – at the time playing for the Ospreys – to Jones’s attention while Tom Curry, currently sidelined with a debilitating hip injury, regularly speaks of the influence Hill has had on his career.
Ethan Roots, meanwhile, made his debut in Rome and he was brought to Borthwick’s attention by Hill, who had been watching him in Premiership Rugby Cup action for Exeter while England were at the World Cup last year. “My experience of Richard Hill is that he is one of the great spotters of talent,” said Borthwick. “If [he] tells me to track a back-row forward, I’m listening.”
Then there is Cunningham-South, who is just 20 – eight months old when Hill was winning the World Cup – but made a fine cameo off the bench against Italy. “There’s no doubt he’s powerful, he has aggression,” says Hill. “And he has the skill set of physicality which is important for breaking tackles and getting the team over the gainline. We saw [against Italy] that cover tackle he made and that shows he’s prepared to cover the ground, and not only cover it but make sure he embeds his shoulder into someone’s ribs if needed. And I quite like that. Yeah, that really appeals.”
So how does it feel to see players he has helped to develop running out for the senior side? “I’m definitely satisfied,” says Hill. “There’s a lot of people in this management who spend a lot of time watching rugby, trying to make players as best they can be. And to see a player perform, to see the team win, is massively important for us. Of course, that’s going to be satisfying. But that’s one game. We can’t afford to let that unravel with the second game. It has to be continuous.
“Personal experience tells me the moment you think you’re the finished article, or you’ve achieved it in this environment, you’re gone. Unfortunately, the game moves on. People are always looking at ways to beat the system. It’s not uncommon for a player to be outstanding, then all of sudden, a couple of games in the opposition have gone: ‘I quite like the look of him. We need to nullify him.’ And then it’s your skill set of how you reinvent yourself.
“Look at Richie McCaw. Everyone said they knew how he played – well if you think that you’d think he’d be easy to shut down then, wouldn’t you? Now sure, there were periods where he was probably quieter but then he’d find a different way of doing something – and that’s the challenge we have to put into every player that comes through the system.”
Hill practises what he preaches and was casting his eye over England’s latest crop of U20s in their victory over Italy last Friday night – Northampton’s back-rower Henry Pollock scored a hat-trick and is a name to keep an eye on – and will do so again against Wales this weekend.
Since Borthwick’s arrival, Hill’s remit has widened and he is “across all Premiership matches”. He says that there are not any specific positions he is looking for – taking the more holistic approach – but tighthead and inside-centre are positions in which England notably lack depth and are no doubt on his agenda. Addressing England’s relative lack of power too now that the Vunipola brothers are out of the picture and Manu Tuilagi, now 32, is a fading force.
“We have the club system that comes into our international teams and clearly, I think what we’re going to try and do is develop as many of the players as possible,” adds Hill. “The nature of the sport is they’re not always going to be fit so that the biggest spread of players we have the bigger group that we can get.
“Playing at the best of their ability allows training to be better, which allows them to challenge themselves more, which means ultimately, positions in teams are harder to get into, the games become that much tougher, and we get these better players. I can’t say that I haven’t spoken around a certain player that is a back-row that I’ve said as a centre, but I’ve been outvoted about 99 to one, so we go with it, and we keep moving but because those conversations are happening all the time.”
