Hill can't wait to get started

By Howard Lloyd
24/6/2016

Sam Hill says he is raring to go for the season ahead after returning from a successful England Saxons tour.

The centre was one of a number of Chiefs players to be on the tour, which was also led by Rob Baxter's assistant Ali Hepher, as the Saxons ran out 2-0 winners over South Africa A.

Now thoughts are turning to the Chiefs' 2016/17 season and, although Hill admits he is looking forward to the break he now has, he is also keen to stay in shape in order to hit the ground running when he returns to pre-season training.

"We've got about four weeks off now, so I'm looking forward to that downtime," he said. "We've got a trip to the Algarve next week for a bit of bonding, which is always fun, and then the boys are in a few days after that.

"The guys who have been on tour will have two weeks of doing nothing and then we'll do our own fitness outside the club, so then when we get back to training we're not in bad shape and can fit back in quite nicely."

He added: "I'm looking to get back into pre-season after a few weeks off, train hard and get into good shape.

"I'll go from there, really, and I expect we'll want to do similar to last year, with the European Champions Cup and the top four is always going to be the benchmark for us now, so that is always going to be in the back of our minds.

"We'll have a good pre-season and then go from there."

Hill says there was nothing but positives to come out of the Saxons tour of South Africa, which resulted in 32-24 and 29-26 wins.

The 23-year-old said: "It was really good and a really enjoyable tour.

"We got two wins, which is obviously what we were after, so it was really good – overall, it was a good experience.

"There were five Chiefs players there, plus Ali and Rob Beddard as strength and conditioning coach.

"It was really good to have that many guys there as it made it all easier to start things off and it was really good to see them all, for us all to play well and all be part of the team."

"I've played with Ollie Devoto (pictured) before as well in the England under-20s and I've known him for a few years now, so it was good to see him on tour with us and he played well," Hill continued.

"I'm really looking forward to him joining us from Bath this summer."

A sizeable number of Chiefs players have been on international duty with their countries this summer, and Hill believes having a large international contingent can only be a benefit to the Chiefs.

He said: "There was quite a few of us on different international tours, which is really good for the club.

"It's definitely really good to see guys going up against each other on the international stage and it's also really good for the club, too."