LONG READ Paul Hill: 'I've had deep-fried Mars bar three times since joining Edinburgh'

It is put to Paul Hill, Edinburgh’s forthright new prop forward, the capital boys might have spent the summer casting envious eyes down the M8, taking in the glory and the history cultivated by Glasgow’s astonishing URC title charge and fancying a piece of the action themselves.

The teams have long kindled a Caledonian enmity, stoked by the closeness of a small professional nation where they are the only shows in town, and the constant jostling for national selection. Each has been well resourced and laden with Test regulars, but only Glasgow have maximised their talent. Edinburgh, stagnant and underwhelming, fell short of the play-offs last year and served up a series of maddening performances. It would only be natural to gaze west and wonder what might have been.

“Mate,” Hill says. “No… No. Other people talk about it, we’ve not. We’re a different team. There might be a lot of crossover in the Scotland set-up but that’s nothing to do with me. I think we can win the URC, and we need to believe in ourselves. I don’t care what they’re doing down the road.”

These are bold proclamations for a team which oscillated for much of the season. The second-half capitulation in Treviso which killed their doomed play-off push felt like the campaign in microcosm. A squad heavy in international experience but light on results. A team with punch but, shorn for many months of the injured Darcy Graham and Emiliano Boffelli, lacking a haymaker in the vital throes.

Hill arrived this summer with champion pedigree, his nine-year spell at Northampton Saints culminating in the Premiership crown back in June. He knows the path to glory is littered with potholes. He knows, too, the pain of a skilled squad unable to clear the final hurdle.

It’s easy to be an underdog with nothing to lose. The second you go into that mindset, you can lose games because you think, we can’t lose what we’ve got.

“We’d made the semi-finals three times in five years before we won the title,” he says. “We had loads of talent and we never really cracked it. People think you do something amazing one year and it just comes off.

“We were a team with ability, and that process of making semi-finals allowed us to move to: can we actually believe in ourselves, and not be a team who says ‘oh, that’s good, we made fourth’. There are definitely parallels with Edinburgh. In those years we had unbelievable players like Dan Biggar and a whole host of lads currently with England, and something just wasn’t clicking.

“We’ve just recently had a talk about what are we doing to make sure we are taking home silverware. We have to go into every single game believing we are going to win. We have to commit. What are we going to do today to make sure we are striving towards that? Everyone is guilty of getting lost in the fog as the season goes on. We can’t think about what two weeks is going to look like. The most important session is the session today.”

Edinburgh lost 10 games last season and were either ahead at half-time or trailing by fewer than seven points in six of them. This, despite scoring almost half their URC tries in the final 20 minutes of matches. Scottish rugby has been dogged for an age by the perception of mental frailty and Hill paints a stark picture of the anxiety which poisoned his new team-mates.

“The way people view Scottish rugby, some of the boys mentioned this – a lot of the time they would come in at half-time and either be winning or well in the game. They’d say, ‘oh f**k, we are in this game’. It’s almost disbelief you’re in a strong position and that can lead to you, instead of being a team that wants to chase, thinking ‘we can’t concede, we can’t concede’. It’s easy to be an underdog with nothing to lose. The second you go into that mindset, you can lose games because you think, we can’t lose what we’ve got.

“We don’t want to come in at half-time and change the plan and be conservative. We’ve got to keep playing, keep the tempo and drive it, and that’s how you see games out.”

Sean Everitt spent much of his first summer in charge bemoaning Edinburgh’s slackness. They’d played too much rugby, leaked too many turnovers leading to tame tries and left a boatload of points on the table through wayward goalkicking. Everitt tightened them up last year, Ben Healy topping the URC points chart, but they still conceded 37% of their league tries from turnovers – the fourth-highest figure in the competition.

 A lot of the time boys were making good breaks down the wings and then running into touch. That’s a cardinal sin we just can’t allow.

In adding more structure, Edinburgh seemed to lose their attacking edge too. Matt Currie and Wes Goosen were bright sparks in what became a tepid offence. Only Zebre Parma, Dragons and Scarlets scored fewer tries. Only the Dragons mustered fewer than Edinburgh’s three try bonus points. They wound up six places and 16 points behind Glasgow yet only lost two more games than their Scottish rivals. They need to find more gears and sharper teeth.

“A stat we threw up, a lot of the time boys were making good breaks down the wings and then running into touch,” Hill says. “That’s a cardinal sin we just can’t allow. You are denying yourselves the opportunity to attack. It might look good but it’s pointless because you’ve turned over possession for absolutely nothing. If you’re tightening the screw and making sure we are not losing good opportunities with easy turnovers, that’s the biggest fix-up we’ve looked at in pre-season.”

Hill has an eclectic background. His parents met on a physiotherapy course in Germany, where he and his siblings where born. His father is English, his mother German, and Hill is fluent in the latter language. He is a proud Yorkshireman and studied English literature at university because his club academy mandated some form of higher education and it seemed like the easiest option. Then he was called up for England two summers running, meaning he missed his end of year exam, and his resit, and decided he’d fare better as a woodworker.

In the early days of Eddie Jones, Hill was a typically left-field selection. He was a pup, in honesty. Three Premiership starts to his name. No real inkling of what it took to thrive in England’s top tier, let alone among the sport’s true elite. Jones capped him en route to the 2016 Grand Slam then took him on tour to Australia that July.

“I had a very conventional career coming through. I went England age-grades all the way through, Under-16s, U18s, two years at U20s. I got my first cap when I was 20, and just thought, yeah, that’s what happens, you just go and play for England. I played about four months of Premiership and got called straight into the England set-up.

“I didn’t realise how many talented players were in the Prem. I was so unaware of how tough the competition was. We had a few bad seasons at Saints and I wasn’t playing as well as I should have done and got dropped, and eventually found my way back in to the England side years later. You don’t realise how tough it is to take a step back. It was one of the hardest environments I’ve ever been in. When it’s taken away from you, it’s so much harder to fight your way back in. I almost took it for granted, which was my own fault.”

When he came on the market, Edinburgh went after him early and hard. He’s a prop in his prime, 29 years old with close to 200 Saints matches. He built a reputation across England as a smart scrummager with soft hands, a big engine and a magnetic personality. For five years, he was Northampton’s chief raconteur and social secretary.

I’d have loved a Scottish hamper when I arrived – ‘here’s your haggis, here’s your whisky, crack on’. I’ve had deep-fried Mars bar three times, unbelievable.

There’s a different role for him in Scotland. Fun to be had, sure, but greater responsibility. The venerable WP Nel – one of Scottish rugby’s finest ever overseas recruits – has finally retired and it’s Hill’s job to plug that void.

“You’ve got to see yourself taking the experience to here and taking more of the reins on stuff,” he says. “A lot of people talk about WP Nel and how much he anchored things here. He has big boots to fill because every interview I’ve had, people have said ‘what’s it like to replace WP Nel?’

“I dunno, I’ve never met the bloke. There’s obviously a bit of a vacuum and you’ve got to fill that. You can’t leave an empty space and you can’t let anyone else fill it. I’ve got to step up here.”

Edinburgh has swept Hill off his sturdy feet since he moved north. The cobblestones and the history weaved through the Old Town. The castle standing guard over the place. The cosmopolitan vibrancy of the Fringe. And of course, the pungent whiff of Edinburgh’s famous ‘chippy sauce’.

“I was blown away, it’s an unbelievable city. You’ve got to buy in to wherever you go. I’d have loved a Scottish hamper when I arrived – ‘here’s your haggis, here’s your whisky, crack on’. I’ve had deep-fried Mars bar three times, unbelievable. Not had salt and sauce on my chips yet. It’s brown sauce and vinegar, right? I need to get some.

“I saw a few Fringe shows. There was a comedian – I won’t mention his name because it went horrendously – and I bought four tickets for the boys at £3 a ticket. It was an hour of the most painful, unfunny comedy I’ve ever been to. They would not let me live it down. I did redeem myself by taking them to a circus show and that was mint.

“I’m not Scottish, but I’ve got to enjoy everything Scotland has to offer. I’m looking at getting a kilt – I had no idea they were that expensive, but there’s a Hill tartan. You might as well go whole hog. That’s my attitude.”

Edinburgh desperately need a season which reflects the pedigree of their players, and the investments made in their squad. They need a clearer identity. They need to be in the URC knockouts and go deeper in the Challenge Cup. Hill’s fired up about what lies ahead. He talks, again, about the fun he had as Saints’ social guru, but how, when the memories fade, the record books and medals remain indelibly.

“I’m really keen to have legacy here. You can have great socials, nights out, friendships, but the thing I always talk about is, if you win trophies, you become a part of history. For that one day, you are the best team in that league. That’s what we need to strive towards. If we win the URC or a European competition, your name is on that placard. That’s what I want to recreate here.”