by Paul Cook –

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“Who’s that big no.12? He was a real handful.”

 “Yeah, he carries well and he’s hard to stop isn’t he? He’s bloody strong!”

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Having watched a fair bit of Shute Shield rugby over the last eight years – probably in the region of 250-300 games all up – you get a pretty good read on the talent coming through in club land that may have what it takes to go onto the next level. I’m certainly no great sage when it comes to rugby talent spotting, and I don’t have a coaches’ eye for detail, but if you watch enough players, enough times, you can tend to pick out those with the qualities that you think would serve them well in the professional arena should they get the opportunity.

So, it was with some satisfaction that I overheard the post-match discussion that introduced this article, amongst a group of Melbourne Rising players, regarding the abilities of Eastwood and North Harbour Rays centre, Tom Hill, whom they had just faced in the NRC round three clash at Manly Oval back at the start of September.

It was a validation of sorts of the belief I have held for some time that Hill has the strings to his bow to make a real go of it with any of the Australian Super Rugby sides, a belief that has only been accentuated by his performances for both the Woodies and the Rays in 2015.

He is a player I have admired since watching him take his first steps in 1st Grade at Chatswood Oval in the colours of Gordon, in 2011. Back then, he was in tandem with another of my Shute Shield favourites, Tom Matthews, the two tyros forming a lethal centre partnership in what was a struggling Highlanders outfit sitting at the wrong end of the ladder.

Matthews’ defensive prowess, footwork and dashing blonde locks sometimes garnered him more attention than his partner in crime at the time, but Hill’s sheer size – he’s now a strapping 6ft 4in and 103 kilos – coupled with his fend, aggression and ability to bend the line, ensured both young talents were earmarked for future success. The rate of Hill’s improvement ever since, into a player of serious Super Rugby potential, has been palpable.

That progress was visibly accelerated by a move from Gordon to title-contenders Eastwood for the start of the 2013 season, a transition which has seen him form one of the cornerstones of a side that has reached three grand finals and lifted two Premierships since his arrival. Indeed, he was one of the best on-field in this year’s Shute Shield decider, producing a seismic performance in midfield in what was a titanic and brutal old-school tussle with Minor Premiers Manly that went down to the wire.

Ironically, he went on to play alongside many of his opponents on that day in the NRC, joining up with the North Harbour Rays and impressing enough in his eight appearances to get a spot in the Australian Barbarians squad currently enjoying a two-match tour of New Zealand.

Following a thrilling last-gasp 38-32 victory in Tuesday’s tour opener, the squad are preparing for a second clash against the Heartland XV tomorrow evening in Whanganui. Shifting one place out from his usual spot, Hill started at outside centre in game one and by all accounts, excelled. Having been overlooked thus far for higher honours, the opportunity to end his most consistent and impressive season to date by rubbing shoulders with the best ‘non-contracted’ players running around in Australian rugby, has been an absolute blast.

“I’m very proud to be a Baa Baa,” Hill told Rugby News from the squad’s camp in Palmerston North on the Shaky Isles’ north island. “I’ve been asked in the past to play but for varying reasons I haven’t been able to make it, so it’s a huge honour and I’m really glad to wear the jersey and join such a prestigious club of rugby players. To be picked in the team for the first match was a huge honour and the tour so far has been a heap of fun. Rugby is a pretty special sport in that way and the Baa Baas is a massive example of that. The rugby has been great and meeting all of these guys has been awesome!”

The Aussie Barbarians celebrate the 38-32 win over the Heartland XV in Levin, New Zealand, on Tuesday – Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

The caveat to selection for the 26-man group, was that they had to adjust back to the traditional laws of the game for the tour after three months immersing themselves in the entertainment-inducing variations of the NRC. But as it transpired, the opening clash ended up being not too dissimilar an occasion.

“The game was a really great experience and was actually very open and quite similar to an NRC match,” Hill confirmed. “There were lots of tries back and forth and given we’ve come together in just a week I thought we did well to get the result. Playing at 13 was really enjoyable, there was lots of space in the game and I really enjoyed having a crack out wide, where I linked up a fair bit with Paul Asquith, my roomie on tour, who had a massive game. I think I maybe took the Baa Baas ‘throw the ball around’ attitude a bit far with one too many flick passes but it was a great deal of fun and we got the result we wanted.

“The coaches [NSW Country Eagles’ Darren Coleman and UC Vikings’ Brad Harris] have been great. When it’s time to train and work hard the boys really understand that and do what we have to do. But when it’s time to relax and enjoy each other’s company we’ve done that as well. The Baa Baa’s is all about camaraderie and bonding and the first thing they said when we came into camp was ‘One of these blokes will probably end up at your wedding’ and I love that stuff. I think it’s a great concept and I hope it sticks around.”

Given the relative brevity of their trip – they only arrived in Wellington last Saturday and fly out a day after game two, one week later – the impressions made on the players by both their hosts and the incredible country they are visiting, already seem set to cement themselves in their collective memory banks for quite some time.

“The New Zealand Heartland have been great – very welcoming and hospitable,” says the 25-year-old. “We’re staying in amazing accommodation at the Massey University Sport & Rugby institute here in Palmerston North and I feel very lucky to be able to train and play in these great facilities. Everywhere we go, we are so welcomed by the New Zealand people, they absolutely love rugby and love having us here, which has made the tour even better.”

It’s certainly a world away from the non-too-shabby streets of Mosman on Sydney’s lower north shore, where Hill grew up. A product of Shore School, whose rugby alumni include former Wallabies David Codey, Mick Mathers, Phil Waugh and Al Baxter, the young Hill enjoyed cricket as his number one sport, but with a father and elder brother who had graced the Mosman and Gordon jerseys respectively, rugby was always going to come calling at some point.

His first forays in the game as a wispy youth were at flyhalf but having left school and joined Gordon’s colts system, an introduction to the gym saw the late bloomer enjoy a growth spurt that saw him moved to the centres, where his size, tackling qualities and ability to break the line first came to the fore.

By 21 he was in 1st grade and was invited by then assistant coach Scott Bowen, to come and train with the Waratahs. He ended up doing the following pre-season at Moore Park and played a couple of trial games but nothing concrete eventuated and he was back honing his craft in club rugby for the 2012 season.

His form that year earned him a spot at the ARU-run National Academy and a chance to experience a professional training environment for an entire summer. Bitten by the training bug and the glimpse of life at the top end of the sport, Hill’s ambitions were suitably fuelled to the point where Gordon’s continuing struggles and an offer to test himself at the other end of the ladder led to a tough decision.

“I never really wanted to leave Gordon to be honest,” Hill admits. “My brother Adam was playing there and I’d played juniors there, but I got some advice that said if I could prove myself at a club that was challenging for a Shute Shield title, it would stand me in better stead to make it at the next level. I met [Eastwood head coach] John Manenti and we got on straight away and it’s been a pretty good three years since then to say the least, with three Grand Finals and two Premierships, so I’m pretty stoked to have made that move and how it’s turned out.”

‘Hill-climb’: From the early days at Shore to Gordon, Eastwood and now the North Harbour Rays

The stewardship of Manenti and fellow coaches Stu Woodhouse and Tim Donnelly, have overseen a transition of power in the Shute Shield from the previously dominant Sydney University to the TG Millner based side. The Students still claimed back-to-back titles in 2012-13 but Manenti’s Eastwood have now achieved four Minor Premierships, four Grand Finals and three Premierships in his six years at the helm. They are the new benchmark.

The star coach has had to reinvent the side a couple of times in the process due to the unavoidable tyrannies of ageing and injuries, but he has found his most consistent, reliable and destructive centre partnership in Hill and partner Michael MacDougall. Their influence on the team’s ability to control a match is not underestimated.

“Johnny always says at Eastwood that once we’re going forward, we’re a different team,” Hill reveals. “Once you bend the line and get that front-foot ball, it’s just so much easier to play and everything tends to flow from there so it’s an important role we try to play.

“It’s a very competitive environment at the club, you have to earn your spot in 1st Grade and if you don’t perform you’re in 2’s, simple as that, because there are so many good players. John, Stu and Tim all expect the best from you so there’s always that pressure to perform, which is good, that pushes you on. If you don’t have that, you just get lazy and you don’t play well.”

The ongoing frustration for Hill and his team mates, Manenti and his coaching staff and the sizeable Eastwood faithful, is that the team’s success hasn’t led to greater individual reward at a representative level.

“If you look at the Waratahs there’s only Benn Robinson and Hugh Roach and that’s it but we’ve won the comp the last two years,” Hill observes. “It’s not as if everyone is older, you might understand if we were all over 30 but we have a squad full of players that are eligible to be selected and they’re constantly overlooked.”

Cue the national shop window that is the NRC.

“I suppose it offers me a better opportunity to get to the next level because I kind of feel like in the last two years in the Shute Shield that I’ve done some pretty good things and I haven’t got there yet,” Hill reflects. “I think that what ‘they’ look at now is not so much Shute Shield, it’s the NRC and if I play well in the NRC, it will help me get to the next level, whether that’s here or overseas. It’s a stepping stone I hope.”

Having nailed his colours to the Greater Sydney Rams’ mast in the competition’s inaugural year, only to be handed a bafflingly small amount of game time, he took up the chance to shift across town in 2015 to the Rays, and it’s proven to be just the tonic he was looking for.

“There were six centres in the Rams squad last year and we kind of all thought we were potential starters but it was just weird, there was a backlog of players and I didn’t get a go,” he says with no little amount of perplexity. “The Rays were quite keen, [head coach] Geoff Townsend called me halfway through the year and I didn’t really hear anything from the Rams so I thought that if I was wanted somewhere else, I should go and it’s been really good. It’s a really good atmosphere with a great bunch of guys and I’ve enjoyed it.”

NRC try-time: Powering over against the Melbourne Rising – Photo: AJF Photography

His six starts and two runs off the bench produced a series of powerhouse displays with four tries thrown in for good measure. But it couldn’t help to propel a promising looking Rays outfit any further up the ladder than the 7th place finish they achieved last year.

“We had no problem scoring points but defence was definitely a weakness,” he concedes. “Looking at the games, I think we should have won the first match against the Stars and even the Melbourne Rising game, we got within five points and were on their line and that’s really frustrating because we could have been three from four at the start rather than one win out of four. That would have put us near the top of the table and with that comes confidence and people start actually believing in what we’re doing.

“I thought we also lacked a little bit of belief. We got close in a lot of games and were almost surprised when we were so close to the Super Rugby affiliated teams. Whilst the NRC appears to be somewhat one-sided with the strength of the top sides, any team can beat any other team on their day and hopefully next year, the Rays will be more successful because there’s heaps of talented players in the team.”

Hill’s efforts for his new side – on and off the field – didn’t go unnoticed by the Rays coaching team.

“He’s a good team man, he’s a popular guy and the boys love him,” says Geoff Townsend. “He’s full of life and he gives you that strong midfield carry, even if he’s playing on the wing, and we used him in that role to get us go forward ball. He’s safe in defence and is a big body that usually takes two or three to stop him so he’ll always give you that momentum. There’s definitely a place for him somewhere at the next level, whether that’s here or overseas, and I’m sure he’ll do well once he gets that chance.”

But that golden ticket has yet to land in Hill’s postbox.

“There’s always murmurs but nothing has come of them so far,” Hill smiles ruefully. “Obviously, staying here is the priority but if it doesn’t happen and something came up overseas then I’d jump at it. It’d be a pretty special opportunity to see the world as a professional rugby player, so somewhere in France or Italy or Japan – I’d jump at the opportunity.”

His lack of recognition thus far may also point to a predilection for ball-playing, rather than ball-running inside centres in Australia. There simply aren’t many no.12’s in this country built like Hill and while the All Blacks and Wales have reaped the benefits of the bulwarking efforts of Messrs Nonu, Sonny-Bill and Jamie Roberts in recent years, and despite persistent calls from Fox Sports‘ über-analyst Rod Kafer for the Wallabies to incorporate just such a weapon, it is a trend that is yet to catch on in the domestic game.

Mitch Inman, once of the Rebels, now of Toulon, offers perhaps the only example in recent Australian Super Rugby history of that giant crash-ball specialist who consistently gets you over the gain line, and Hill is cast very much from the same mould, albeit with arguably softer hands.

Shute Shield try-time: Diving under the posts in the 2014 win over Manly at the Village Green – Photo: Karen Watson Photography

Someone who watched Inman come through the ranks at Sydney University and who has enjoyed many a midfield battle in recent years with Hill, is former Waratah Tom Carter. A shrewd rugby brain with an innate knowledge of the no.12 position as a result of his 76 Super Rugby caps for his state, Carter is in a better position than most with which to judge Hill’s potential. And he is unequivocal.

“He’s been the best centre in club rugby over the last two years,” he enthused when Rugby News contacted him this week. “He’s a great defender and a dynamic ball carrier and his form in big games has shone out. He’s proved in the NRC that he’s more than capable of playing at a higher level if given the opportunity. I think he deserves a shot.”

Unfortunately for Hill, neither Carter, Townsend or John Manenti for that matter are coaching a Super Rugby team – yet. But rather than getting all worked up over something he can’t control, all he can do is what he knows how to do – train hard, keep trying to improve and playing rugby to the best of his ability week-in, week-out. The rest is ultimately out of his hands.

“I haven’t had those sorts of conversations [about positional prototype preferences] with any Super Rugby coaches so it’s kind of hard to know if that’s what they’re looking for. But all I can do is stick to what I know and what I’m good at and if they want that, they’ll come looking for it and if not, there’s not much you can do.

“I’m trying to work on my ball playing as much as possible and I think offloads are really key in all footy, whether you’re a centre, a prop or in the backrow, so I’m always trying to get my arms free. But you can’t get too down on yourself or worry too much because you can’t really control it. I’m not overly frustrated, and I certainly don’t think I’m owed anything, I just want an opportunity.”

First up is the small matter of another encounter with a Heartland XV side keen for redemption following Tuesday’s loss. The confidence taken from that first-up win, alongside the extra cohesion, familiarity and improved execution that should come with a few more training sessions together as a group puts the Barbarians in a pretty good position to return to Australia unbeaten. And that would be a hell of a way for Hill to sign off on a stellar year of rugby.

“There’s a huge amount of talent in this team and given we’ve had a few extra days training etc, I feel confident that we can win again on Friday and cap off a successful tour,” he says.

“All in all it’s been a hell of a season from club footy with Eastwood, to the NRC with the Rays and now the Baa Baas in New Zealand. I’ve been really happy with it and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. This tour is a perfect way to end it – playing a really high level of rugby with some great players, sharing some great experiences and making a number of mates for life. That’s what it’s all about.”