England captain Maro Itoje has compared Ted Hill to Superman after the Bath forward was whisked into the matchday squad to face Scotland.
Hill has been called in to the 23 after an injury set-back for George Martin, covering the second row from the bench with the Leicester lock forced to withdraw having been dealing with a couple of niggles since the win over France.
While ordinarily deployed on the blindside by Bath, Hill started at lock against Gloucester in the Premiership earlier this season and England have full faith that he can cover the position at Test level.
An outstanding athlete, the 25-year-old made his debut as a teenager in 2018 before earning his second cap against the United States in the summer of 2021.
Nearly four years on, a third appearance is likely to arrive. Hill is a glasses-wearer off the pitch and has drawn comparisons to Superman’s civilian persona Clark Kent, and Itoje is excited to see his colleague don the cape in the Calcutta Cup.
“I am very happy for Ted,” Itoje said. “He is a player I have admired for a number of years, seeing him do his thing at Worcester and then at Bath.
“In his last stint with England I also played with him there. He is a supreme athlete. He looks like Clark Kent and Superman with his glasses. He is a man carved out of Greek stone. I am very happy that I hopefully get an opportunity to play with him.”
Martin’s absence sees England lose scrum heft and a specialist lock from their bench, with Alex Coles still working his way back up to full fitness despite being fit to return to the wider squad after injury.
Martin has started every game since this equivalent fixture in round three of last year’s Six Nations.
The 23-year-old, one of the side’s hardest hitters, has dealt with a number of knee issues so far in his career, but England’s attack coach Richard Wigglesworth insisted that his latest absence was unrelated and that England are not overly concerned.
“He had a couple of bangs post the France game that he and we thought were going to be all right, but to go and play a Test match, you have to be close to 100%, and he's not quite right,” Wigglesworth explained.
“George is incredibly diligent, getting to know his body more and more. You can see what he puts himself through, so naturally after the Test match, as we've seen with a few other countries this weekend, you guys picked up a bang.
“The way he plays, we want him to be able to rip in as he does, and if we've got any risk of that, then we've got Ted and we're pleased to put him in. He's an incredible athlete, Ted, not only quick across the ground, but quick in the air, line-out time.
“He's got a different set of super-strengths to George Martin, but we'll expect him to bring the best of him when he comes on.”
