An icon of the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning England side, Richard Hill is now a leading figure in discovering the next generation of England players. Last weekend, head coach Steve Borthwick awarded five England players their test match debut, and included the back-row duo of Ethan Roots and Chandler Cunningham-South for the Six Nations opener against Italy.
The former England flanker has been credited in discovering one of these recent England debutants, as Hill recognised Roots’ talents whilst Borthwick paid close attention. The England head coach has previously recalled Hill’s identification of Roots, and marked him as a player to track for a future England call-up.
“So Ethan, I remember coaching (for Leicester Tigers) against the Ospreys, in Europe, and seeing this player, he’s a good player. He’s a really good player. But effectively then thought nothing too much more of it.” Borthwick said in a recent interview.
“Then we’re in La Touquet, and walking through the dining room, and Richard Hill, he’s at his computer, and he’s watching the Premiership Rugby Cup games. He pulls me over, come and watch this, watch this player for the next two minutes.
“I watched him with ‘Hilly’, and he was outstanding. His work rate and the physicality he brought to it. ‘Hilly’ said to me there and then he said, ‘track this guy, track him.’ And if Richard Hill tells me to watch a back row forward I’m listening. He’s got some brain, and understanding that he’s in England selection now.”
Hill gave his side of the story, in how he made the England head coach aware of the New Zealand born back row. The hard-hitting Hill then expressed the areas of Roots’ game that impressed him upon first viewing, with Roots now tearing up trees for Exeter Chiefs.
“Yes, if there is someone of interest for the future, then I’d make Steve aware, and Ethan was one of those players.” Hill said. “Steve would have been aware of him already from his club days playing (coaching Leicester) against the Ospreys and certainly, our (England) analysts were aware of him.
“But for myself, it was a new face and in terms of what he showed in that match, I knew there were skill sets that would interest us, you know, certainly someone who can carry the ball, carrying in contact, heavy contact and defensively physical at the breakdown. He was physical and consistent in terms of the performance he put in throughout his Exeter start to his career. So, they were they were all positives.”
After retiring from rugby in 2008, the 71-capped England international joined up with the nation’s player pathway, in a mentoring role back in 2014. Taking up the post in the tale end of the Stuart Lancaster era, it was not until the appointment of Eddie Jones, that Hill began to search out specifically for promising English back-row talents. Hill recalled his journey throughout the England coaching staff, as he now enters his third head coach reign, following Steve Borthwick’s appointment ahead of the 2023 Six Nations.
“Yes, I suppose my role starts in 2014. The pathway, well it was very much a mentoring role. Young back rows, and it was a case of ‘let’s start and see how it goes, go support the age grades, be at some of the camps that the U18 and U20s have and get to know some of the players, and see how it goes’. Then 2016 Eddie (Jones) wanted, I suppose, an English former player to join the group. Someone who had a familiarity with young players. I suppose one of the first questions or statements he had for me when he first started is we have we have a need to find some open-sides (flankers).
“I told him we didn’t have any at the moment, but clearly there’s a couple ear marked for a couple years now that’s come to fruition. But Steve came involved last year again and wanted to keep that relationship and wanted me to maintain the pathway role, even while doing this seniors role, so outside of camp it has been more towards that.”
With a total of 275 caps for Saracens, Hill had long been a revered name across London’s toughest back-rowers. However, following his retirement, the 50-year-old has been scouting the prospect talents at his old rival clubs across the capital. One such talent that has since grown into obtaining an England senior cap, is Chandler Cunningham-South, who came through the ranks at London Irish, and made a name for himself in the Exiles back-row.
Following London Irish’s financial collapse at the end of last season, Cunningham-South has remained a fan favourite in South West London, as he was promptly snapped out of the depths of free agency by Harlequins. Hill has kept an eye on Cunningham-South’s progression, and was delighted to see the 20-year-old make his test match debut in last weekend’s away win in Rome.
“Chandler’s another story in its own right. You know, he was someone that was picked up by London Irish. He came over (to Irish) as an 18-year-old, born in England, strong qualification. So, I think he must have played probably one game for Esher (on loan) before the London Irish Academy were making sure that I had some clips.
“Yeah, they shared some highlights from his game. There was no doubt, as an 18-year-old his physicality of the carry was quiet…well, it was not quite the norm for an 18-year-old compared to others that I was watching. He was doing fantastically well, so I made sure that I connected with him (at the) England U20s training sessions. He played in a couple of the regional matches that had to be organised when Covid was on and there was not so many playing opportunities out there.”
Hill then shared a humorous anecdote, about how Cunningham-South was initially oblivious to what his mentor had previously achieved in an England shirt. The 2003 Rugby World Cup winner recalled a phone call he had with London Irish Academy coach Jon Fisher, about how a young Chandler was unawares about his accomplishments.
“I carried chatting to him (Chandler Cunningham-South), and then it was probably after a number of meetings that I’d had with him, that John Fisher who is Academy coach, decided to ring me after one of those chance meetings.
“And, you’re gonna love this, Jon said that Chandler has just told me how he turns out to under 20s training, and a couple of times ‘this guy’s come up to me, and he’s had a chat about my game. He seems to understand how to play, and he’s got some reasonable ideas. You know, he sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.’ So yeah, that was me!
“He found out that I played in the World Cup, probably three months ago! Chandler’s not that fussed about what’s gone on in the past, he (Jon Fisher) wanted to know why I didn’t tell him. I said it had no bearing on what we’re trying to achieve, which was him, not me.”
As both Roots and Cunningham-South made their England debuts last weekend, Hill admitted to have felt a great deal of pride as they wore the rose against the Italians. The former flanker expressed how he tries to not rest on any laurels, and instead continue to develop the talent for England’s squad depth.
“I’m definitely satisfied, yeah. You know, there’s a lot of people in this management, that 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. And yes, of course, that’s going to be satisfying. But as I say, that’s one game. We can’t afford to let that unravel with the second game with them not being good. And as I say the challenge is to make sure that we have the depth of squad, that creates the challenge. So, it has to be continuous.”
Speaking on positional depth, there has been a recent clambering from England fans to find a ball-carrying midfielder than can fill the void left by Manu Tuilagi. The Sale Sharks man is once again on the injury side-lines, with his future in an England jersey up for debate at 32-years-old. Tuilagi’s second-in-command Ollie Lawrence has too been ruled out of the Six Nations for the time being, with England’s options for a crash-ball option dwindling thin in the middle of the park. Hill discussed how he had previously pushed for a current back-rower to run out in the centres, yet was outvoted in the decision.
“I can’t say that I haven’t spoken around a certain player that is a back row, that I’ve said is a centre, but I’ve been out voted about 99 to one. So we go with it, and we keep moving but yes, because those conversations are happening all the time. If you were to look at front row forwards, you will find that the vast majority of them have probably been in the back row up until the age of somewhere between 16 and 18, so those conversations are always happening.”
Hill then turned his attention to England’s opponents for the weekend, as Wales are currently boasting a fearsome back-row line-up. Tommy Reffell has long been on Hill’s radar of top back-row talents, and the former Saracen has also expressed how impressed he was by Aaron Wainwright’s Player of the Match performance against Scotland.
“At the weekend we saw talented individuals, Reffell at the breakdown, that have been a constant challenge and (one) that the players will be well aware of from their Premiership experiences.
Wainright carrying on that wide channel too, so the breakdown is going to be massively important as is first up tackles. But also, we’ve got to make sure that our attack is such that they’re not able to get on the ball. Because our shapes make it hard for a tackle, or they’re not able to make the big line breaks, because they’re pretty fatigued from the other work that we’ve made them do. So, it’s about making sure that we’re on top of our own game as well.”
Hill began to close out the back-row clinic, by highlighting the significance of physicality at the back of the pack. What sounds like a straightforward asset for test match rugby, gets broken down into complex specialisms, with Hill identifying Roots and Cunningham-South as impressive performers in such positions. However, Hill explained how just because the two emerging flankers are in the fold for now, does not solidify their place exponentially. Competition is always rife in an England camp, which the former back-rower believes gets the best out of the players.
“The nature of the sport is they’re (players) not always going to be fit, so that the biggest spread of players we have, the bigger the 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 is harder to get into, the games become that much tougher, and we get these better players.
“There are things that we are talking about that we’re aware of, and we’ll continue to push around specifics. I think it’s a well-known thing that we’ve had some front five clinics this year, which is an important step forward. The scrum has reinvented itself as a really important piece of the jigsaw. If you don’t have a good scrum, you don’t have a dominant scrum, then it becomes very hard to have an amazing back alignment.
“So yeah, those bits have all got to come together. Obviously, Ethan and Chandler have pushed their case forward in the last few weeks in this environment. I’m fully aware that we’ve had players that have already played for England who still have aspirations to play, particularly in the back row. We still have some pretty exciting talent that’s currently not in this squad who believe they should be, and our job is to make sure they understand this is not a closed shop.”