Hill caps off a memorable year

Exeter Chiefs centre Sam Hill admitted it had been a fantastic 12 months for him as he topped it off by playing his first game at Twickenham for England against the Barbarians last Sunday.

Last summer he won the Junior World Championship with England Under-20s in France, but was then expecting to go back to Championship side Cornish Pirates, where he had been dual-registered the previous season.

However, instead he became an integral part of the Exeter first-team squad, making 15 appearances in the Premiership, with 12 of them starts, and that total would have been even more but for injuries picked up playing for England Saxons, for whom he made his debut against the Ireland Wolfhounds at Gloucester’s Kingsholm Stadium in January.

He was then called into the enlarged England training squad preparing for the summer tour to New Zealand, and the match with the Barbarians, before running out at Twickenham in front of 50,000 people last Sunday.

“If you had asked me 12 months ago, I would never have expected to have been involved in this game,” said 21-year-old Hill, speaking after the 39-29 defeat to the Barbarians. “I have really enjoyed this year and I will keep trying to improve and work hard in pre-season and hopefully keep moving forward. I was not expecting to play as much as I have done for the Exeter first team, but it has been a great year and I have really enjoyed myself.”

Hill added: “I didn’t play for Exeter against Harlequins at Christmas, so I had never played at Twickenham before, or in front of a crowd that size before, so that alone was a great experience.

“It was also a great experience to play against some of the best players in the world, but it was tough. There were some big boys out there and some big old tackles going in, and it was pretty physical. They had some massive guys, and to stop them takes some doing, but it was really good fun and I really enjoyed it.”

Despite his inexperience, Hill, who emerged through the Chiefs Academy at Ivybridge Community College, always seems to take everything in his stride, and he looks very composed out on the pitch, whatever the calibre of the opposition.

“The first few times playing for Exeter in the Premiership I was pretty nervous, and I was pretty nervous today as well, but once you get into it, it is like any other game really, you just do as well as you can and that’s all you can do,” he said.

Hill was joined in the England training squad by Exeter team-mates Tom Johnson, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade and Dave Ewers, and while Johnson and Cowan-Dickie were selected to tour New Zealand, Hill took to the Twickenham pitch with Slade and Ewers, and that made it an even more memorable experience for him.

“It was really good playing with the Chiefs lads,” he said. “Growing up with those guys and then to play in an England XV against the Barbarians with them, I would never have thought that would happen, and I really enjoyed it.

“Hopefully, Luke and TJ get a bit of game time in New Zealand and I hope to see those guys doing well because they deserve it.”

Slade and Ewers both scored tries against the Barbarians, and Hill added: “That was a bit of a bonus for them, and it was good to see that.”

It is tremendous to see so many Exeter players being given their chance on the international stage, and that is a rich reward for Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter’s policy of not being scared to hand his talented youngsters plenty of first-team opportunities.

“Rob showed that with Jack Nowell a couple of years ago, and that inspired me and the other Academy guys, that if we trained well and played well for our loan teams, we could get the chance to break into the first team as well,” said Exeter-born Hill.

He is now looking forward to a bit of rest, before tackling a tough pre-season programme with the Chiefs.

“I get a few weeks off now to recover, and then I am back into it in about three or four weeks’ time,” he said.