Jonny finds some more hills to climb

ENGLAND and Exeter lock Jonny Hill insists he is not in the business of reflecting on past glories as he resets his sights after a stellar end to 2020 for both club and country.

- NEALE HARVEY

Hill’s lengthy wait for silverware ended in a rush when Exeter’s double-winning exploits in October were followed by a first England cap against Italy and Six Nations success, before he rounded things off with a fourth trophy in the Autumn Nations Cup.

An achievement to savour, surely? “I’m not really too big on reflection, to be honest,” Hill, 26, tells The Rugby Paper. “I think I’ll reflect more when I retire, but only for the reason that I want to keep improving as a player and keep achieving bigger and better things.

“It was still a really good few months, though, because you build up to it and you want to win trophies. At the club, we’d waited a long time and been on the end of some horrible final defeats, so to go and win the Champions Cup and Premiership at once was really strange.

“Then to have three weekends on the bounce, winning three tournaments after playing in the Six Nations for England, I honestly can’t put that into words. To add a fourth trophy after that…well, what can I say? It’s something that could maybe never happen again.”

Having won his first four caps, Hill says he revelled in the England environment and benefitted from working under forwards coach Matt Proudfoot – a man whose reputation soared after he helped construct the mammoth South African pack that won the last World Cup.