Magical year for Hill

By Mark Stevens

In what has already been a magical year for him, Exeter Chiefs centre Sam Hill is hoping the final months of 2013 will bring even more happy memories for him.

A Six Nations winner in March with the England Under-20s, Hill followed that title success up in June with yet more silverware as he was one of five current Chiefs who helped the Red Rose country to lift the Junior World Championship for the first time in France.

If that was not enough for the young back, he has followed those achievements up by now breaking into the Chiefs first team for the opening two games of the season, making his first Premiership start in last Saturday's home win over London Wasps.

It has - according to the 20-year-old - been a whirlwind 12 months, but the level-headed lad from Crediton is determined to keep on improving and further his career even more.

“I really enjoyed my first game but I’ve got to keep moving on and getting better,” said Hill. “Hopefully I may get a few more starts. Realistically my goal was to get on the bench for a few games this season, so to get a start was brilliant and more than I expected."

Hill partnered the experienced Jason Shoemark in the Exeter midfield against Wasps and he hopes his impressive showing will be enough to keep him in the starting XV for Saturday's away-day against London Irish.

He added: “I was really excited when I was told I was starting last week, I didn’t expect it at all to be honest. I really enjoyed it but it was very tough, the pace and intensity of the match was a very high standard. To play in front of the Sandy Park crowd was brilliant as well and the atmosphere was just fantastic."

With the Chiefs up and running with last week's victory, plus the Braves also demolishing Wasps by 60 points on Monday evening, the mood around Sandy Park has certainly been buoyant in the lead-up to Saturday's clash at the Madejski Stadium.

“We’ve got some momentum with the Braves winning as well," continued Hill. "We’ve got to keep building it each week and hopefully building the momentum as we go. We’re not going to change how we play at all, we’re going to do what we do best and give it all we’ve got. Hopefully we can get a good performance in again this weekend and a good result.”