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'I'm glad it's behind me now': Former England prop Paul Hill
By Bryn Palmer
When Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt was casting around last year for a replacement for retiring club legend WP Nel, he settled on Paul Hill, the experienced Northampton tighthead who won six England caps under Eddie Jones.
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Hill’s first season in the Scottish capital was progressing nicely, establishing himself as first choice in the No.3 shirt with 11 starts in 14 games until he sustained a neck injury against Benetton in late March and was replaced at the interval.
Each subsequent medical bulletin from the club suggested his return to action could be any week now, but that Treviso trauma proved to be the end of his season.
If neck issues are something of an occupational hazard for props – Hill had to withdraw from an England tour of Argentina in 2017 with a similar problem – the 30-year-old admits he was concerned at the initial lack of progress in his rehabilitation.
“Of course that’s something you try and avoid as much as you can as a prop, because it is slightly part and parcel, and it is certainly something you have to be concerned about. I’m not a specialist. I can’t recite exactly what it was. But effectively, just a spinal injury.
“Sometimes these things aren’t always abundantly clear from the first scan. When it happened, it was like, ‘a week out should be fine’. Then it was, ‘actually it’s going to be two weeks’, … ‘it’s going to be a month’ … ‘it’s probably your season done’.
“Sometimes you’ve got to blindly trust the specialists a little bit. They probably know what they’re on about if they’ve done a few years of medical training. But I’m glad it’s behind me now and I’m ready to crack on.
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“I’m also aware that anything can happen. You’ve got to take care of yourself and understand that it’s an occupational hazard and just put it behind you.
“Because realistically, if you’re thinking about it too much, you’ve still got to throw your head into dark places. And if it’s sitting in the back of your mind too much, then it’s pointless. You’ve just got to get on with it sometimes.”
As well as staying away from scrummaging machines, Hill also had to give his three and five-year-old daughters a wide berth at times to ensure play-time with dad didn’t impinge on his recovery.
“You have to avoid a bit of rough and tumble,” he said. My kids are crazy. I have to avoid them, honestly. It’s all well and good and fun, but when it’s the flying two-foot drop-kicks on the back of my head, I’m just like: ‘kids, just give it a couple of weeks, please’.”
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If Hill was angling for a return that didn’t materialise, his frustration at missing Edinburgh’s last nine games of the season – including a European Challenge Cup semi-final against Bath and a late-season run to a URC quarter-final against the Bulls – was soothed somewhat by developing a new passion, shared by team-mates Ewan Ashman and Ross Thompson.
“I have taken up a lot of fishing recently,” he explained. “I went salmon fishing at Galashiels and that was amazing, great fun. So much fun.
“I do a lot of fly fishing. Shout out to Ewan Ashman and Ross Thompson. They’re my fishing buddies. James Lang’s trying to get involved in the group, but he’s a little bit behind so he needs to up-skill himself before he comes along.
“I love my fly fishing. I’d done odds and sods before, a bit of coarse fishing when I was really young. But this is me really getting my teeth into it. I bloody love it.”
Hill calls fly-half Thompson “the gillie of the group – he’s done it his whole life” but says he and Scotland hooker Ashman have taken different approaches to getting themselves fitted out.
“Obviously, I’ve done the smart thing, I went and spent £50 on a rod,” he said. “Ewan Ashman’s got the bank account out and he’s just gone: ‘all the gear, no idea’. He’s literally bought himself a golden rod. But he catches the back of his jumper more than he does fish!”
As might be expected when three professional sportsmen get together outside their specialist field, there is a competitive element to this weekly Wednesday outing on their day off from training.
“Oh, absolutely,” Hill grins. “We’re social at the end. It’s a boat tally. It’s not individual, so it’s how the group’s done. But then also, if someone doesn’t catch fish, they’re getting a bit of a ribbing.
“Ross is the only one who’s actually good at casting. We’re just there for fun, really. But it’s good fun. I’ve probably put about five fish away. I don’t want to say I’m going to go professional yet, but maybe in a few years’ time.”
While he has been easing back into training during pre-season, Hill has also found time to help out with coaching at Edinburgh club side Currie, who compete in the Scottish Premiership.
“My missus isn’t too happy. I’m barely at home at the moment,” quips the prop, who had previously done some coaching at a junior level in Northampton.
“I’m loving it. We’re four from five at the moment, I think – not a bad run – I’ll take that. So let’s see if we can keep that going. I really enjoy coaching at Currie. It’s a really good bunch of lads.
“I think sometimes it gives you a bit of perspective as well when you’re a player, to step outside of that and see it from a coach’s point of view. And one of the things that keeps me going down is how much those boys actually dig in quite hard. They listen to what you say more than the lads here do, so it’s definitely worth it.
“Those boys, they’ve done a full day’s work – some might be on the tools, some lads are behind a desk in an office until six o’clock – and then it’s drive straight to training, boots on and run out. Credit to them because that’s a proper day’s work … unlike what I do!”
Hill will get back to doing what he does best on Saturday as Edinburgh begin their league campaign against Zebre Parma in Italy.
The hosts may not exactly be a big fish in the URC pool, but they will still take some reeling in.
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