Approaching his 36th birthday, it’s no surprise Huddersfield Giants’ Chris Hill is thrilled to see the traditional exhausting Easter schedule ditched.
Ordinarily, the veteran England prop would be doing everything possible on Sunday to recover for tomorrow, preparing for a second game in just four days. But Betfred Super League’s notorious Good Friday and Easter Monday double-header has finally been dumped in the name of player welfare. Clubs now just have one outing over the holiday period and it’s Huddersfield’s turn to feature this evening, completing ‘Rivals Round’ at Leeds Rhinos.
Asked if he’s pleased about that, Hill admitted: “Just a little bit. At my age, especially! Some of the young lads might not be as they might have got a game. And sometimes it is about your squad. Maybe this year we wouldn’t have minded playing two games with the squad we have at Huddersfield. But as a whole, as a game, it is smart. We want quality don’t we? We don’t just want to bang games in.
“I don’t think it’s the two Easter games that got you either; it was the game the week after as you can’t recover in time. But now we can go to Leeds and it makes it more important being just one game. And we have to back up what we did last week.”
Huddersfield won 26-16 at Salford last Sunday, having narrowly lost to Wigan and St Helens before. They and Leeds both have three victories so far and are each in need of another victory to kick-start their campaigns. Rhinos lost again at Hull KR and ex-Warrington captain Hill admitted: “They are up and down. They're either really on or really off. But if you let them place they can rip you to pieces with (Aidan) Sezer and Blake (Austin). We have to be on our game defensively.”
Australian stand-off Austin, who played alongside Hill at Warrington and Great Britain, was outstanding when Leeds came from behind to beat high-flying Catalans a fortnight ago. Hill said: “That’s the Blake I know. He can do it. It’s just doing it consistently for Blake. But if you give him enough time he will rip you to pieces and so will Sezer. They have a few boys back, too, with Harry Newman recently and now Mikolaj Oledzki to full fitness. It will be tough but we’re looking forward to taking them on.”
Ex-England winger Jermaine McGillvary returns for Giants after Ash Golding was crocked by a major hamstring injury at Salford. Leeds have Ash Handley, Richie Myler and Nene Macdonald back in their squad. Meanwhile, Hill is waiting to see if he’ll feature for England again when they face France later this month. He was excellent at the World Cup after being a surprise call-up by Shaun Wane last autumn.
But Hill will be 38 when the 2025 tournament takes place in France. He said: “I’ll have a chat with Shaun and see what his plans are. Mid-year he’s probably going to want to look at some young talent coming through and I wouldn’t blame him. There’s a lot of it.
“We’ve got a few ourselves at Huddersfield with Owen Trout, Matty English and Olly Wilson so I’m more than happy to let them have a crack. But I’ll never step down from international rugby league so if he wants me, I’m there.”
