Rugby is life!!!!

Swansong for the unsung hero

Many fans remember Richard Hill missing the line-out take that allowed Serge Betsen to score in the opening minutes of the World Cup semi-final in 2003.

Yes, that's the one - long ball to the back, France extended their line and Hill was caught flat-footed, and despite a superhuman attempt to get back and get under Betsen, the French openside slipped through Hill and surged over for the opening score.

The reason people remember is possibly because in 76 international appearances that was the only time anyone can ever remember the man known to the world of rugby simply as 'Hilly' making a major mistake.

Rugby folk are a fickle lot; spend time around the bars and you'll hear them argue about everything: from the quality of Guinness Premiership to the impending ELV implementation.

However, there's one topic that unites them - 15 years of unparalleled brilliance from Richard Hill, of Saracens, England and the Lions. Nowhere, from Wellington to Wycombe, from Cardiff to Cape Town, does any player command universal respect quite like Hill.

On Saturday, for the last time in front of his adoring Saracens fans, Hilly will limp out to play for the only first-class side he has ever served, and you can bet your over-valued mortgage that there won't be a dry eye in the house.

Here is a man who's had nine knee reconstructions just to turn out for his club and "to repay some of the sicknotes I've had with England".

Martin Johnson is not a man known to mince his words; when asked about Hill, Johnno furrowed his brow and said: "You know, I played 70-odd games with the guy and his worst performance was world class. That was his default minimum, world class in every facet of the game."

Indeed, when Zinzan Brooke, outrageous rugby genius turned pundit, was asked to pick his 2003 RWC Team of the Tournament, he remarked: "Well, the first thing I'd do is ask Hilly where he fancied playing and then pick the rest around him."

The ultimate showman lauding the ultimate workman? Strange, but it bears testimony to the esteem even the cynical battle-hardened Kiwis hold him in.

Coaches remark on his innate understanding of the game, his unreal reading of every situation which gave him a second or two of extra time over his opponents.

Former Saracens coach Buck Shelford said he was the only loosie he'd seen that he'd bracket with Michael Jones. Considering Jones is usually only ever compared to God himself, again this is unheard of praise from a former All Black captain.

Arriving at Sarries as a stripling number eight from Salisbury, he announced to Saracen coach Mark Evans that he wanted to play at seven as "that's the only place England will pick a man of my size".

Evans was gobsmacked at what he perceived to be arrogance; Hill was displaying the immense pragmatism that has featured throughout his career. Remember, these were the days of Jack Rowell's juggernaut back-rows and there were calls from all quarters to pick a specialist openside.

The irony is, that despite featuring as a tearaway seven for England and the Lions, Hill eventually cemented his fame on the other flank, as the supreme blindside workhorse, whilst Dallaglio and Back hogged the limelight at eight and seven respectively, forming arguably the most formidable international back-row trio in the history of the game.

Indeed, such were his plaudits that Dallaglio once remarked: "Hilly is possibly the most oversung unsung hero in the history of the game."

After a stunning Lions tour in 1997 where Hill was instrumental in the Test test victory, Graham Henry's opening thoughts to Andy Robinson on the 2001 campaign were: "Is this guy as good as they say?" to which Robinson replied: "No, he's a hell of a lot better."

Hill, playing back at seven where he won most of his Lions' caps, went on to produce arguably the greatest game of his career in the first Test, wiping the much-vaunted George Smith off the pitch, before Nathan Grey's wanton thuggery in the second encounter put the flanker out of the series.

2001 was indeed the year the world woke up to this extraordinary talent. His 50m try against France where he outpaced and beat four French backs ranks as good a try as ever scored in an England shirt and displayed a turn of pace few loose forwards can boast.

During the run into the RWC, Hill became England's backbone, as important or even more important to the side as Johnson or Jonny Wilkinson. During his entire international career, Hill was never once dropped. Sir Clive Woodward famously commented: "How could I drop Hilly? He has never had a bad game."

Hill is an unusually self-deprecating individual, and has avoided publicity in the same way nature abhors a vacuum. When asked by a rugby magazine to tell a joke he replied: "I don't tell jokes. I'm just the guy that gets on with it."

He was once turned away by bouncers from a nightclub, after two friends of his had smuggled their way in by purporting to be Will Greenwood and Dwayne Peel. Hill told the bouncers who he was, and was refused entry. "Never heard of you," muttered the doormen.

He also recently, in an interview with David Hands, revealed that, despite being widely touted for the England captaincy after Johnson retired in 2003, he was very relieved that the more flamboyant Dallaglio was eventually appointed.

"I tried to sound disappointed," Hill confessed, "and I did the same with the press but, to be truthful, it took a weight off my shoulders. By nature, I am a foot soldier. You need foot soldiers, and that's what I do best."

The simplicity of his play is mirrored in his attitude to life and rugby. When a rather average former player badgered Hill about recruiting his assistance and knowledge in shedding a few pounds of weight, the flanker's response demonstrated the simplicity and effectiveness of his thinking, not to mention his uncompromising attitude.

"You know exactly how heavy you are and you know exactly how heavy you should be," he explained bluntly.

"You also know exactly what to do to get there, so stop talking to me about it and get on with it. No one can do it for you."

One wonders if, post rugby, he should ask Weightwatchers for a job.

It's this simplicity underpinned by absolute modesty that personifies his being. A measure of Hill's commitment to the spirit of rugby came when he was asked recently what was the greatest moment of his career. Other than the obvious World Cup wins, it was this: "My first run after the last ACL op [anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction], and that feeling of the wind in your hair and the sense of freedom that came with it. When I couldn't run, I was just a normal person. Able to run again, I was again part of rugby. Back where I wanted to be."

In his penultimate match for his beloved Saracens it was this adoration of the game that forced the normally stoical Hill to tears as he walked around the packed Ricoh Stadium after giving every single ounce of his soul to what for once was a gallant loss.

It said everything about the respect he commands that every Munster fan in the stadium rose to give him a standing ovation.

"It was pretty tough when I came off and there were a lot of feelings going through my mind but that is obviously the last time I will play at that level of competition," explained Hill.

"Given what I've been through with my knee I took a lot of satisfaction from the fact that I can still perform at that level, but it was also pleasing that as a team we've come so far to be just a kick at goal away from a Heineken Cup Final."

It was one of life's ironies that Hill's very last act on the big stage was that of failing to release in contact, a fact his ironic sense of humour will appreciate.

So now, as the curtain is poised to close, one final encore awaits for the unsung hero, as he fires his troublesome knee up for the very last time to once more put his body on the line for the club and team-mates he has devoted himself to for fifteen years.

The fans at Watford call him HRHRH, or just plain King Richard, such is the esteem in which he is held, and when the final whistle blows the curtain will fall on a regal contribution to the game he loves so passionately.

A player that has embodied the very spirit and essence of rugby, and a man that has truly met with Triumph and Disaster and treated those two impostors just the same, it is without question that the game is considerably richer for the contributions of Richard Anthony Hill.

(planetrugby.com)