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112kg Bath flanker Hill skins England wing Feyi-Waboso over 50 metres
By Josh Raisey
For a player that stands at 1.96 metres and weighs 112 kgs, Bath flanker Ted Hill showed to the rest of Europe that he can shift on Saturday.
The two-cap England forward has always been known to have a freakish top speed, but few would have known he could gallop quite as well as he showed against Exeter Chiefs in the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 encounter at Sandy Park.
Playing a match in wildly tempestuous conditions, the 25-year-old took advantage of a swirling Bath box kick to pluck the ball out of the air at the halfway line. He then stampeded his way to the tryline from 50 metres out.
That achievement is impressive enough for a player of his side, but it is made all the more staggering by the fact that England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso was in hot pursuit of him but could not catch up.
Now Feyi-Waboso does not need to prove what a speed merchant he is to anyone, so the fact that he could barely keep up with Hill over 50 metres says something about the Bath man's top speed.
In the Exeter star's defence, he was turning while Hill had momentum after chasing the Bath kick while, but they more or less started from the same position and had a foot-race from the halfway line. But he could barely close the gap on the flanker 22kg heavier than him.
Take a look at the try:
Exeter Chiefs: 1 Scott Sio, 2 Jack Yeandle, 3 Ehren Painter, 4 Rusi Tuima, 5 Dafydd Jenkins (c), 6 Ethan Roots, 7 Christ Tshiunza, 8 Ross Vintcent, 9 Tom Cairns, 10 Harvey Skinner, 11 Olly Woodburn, 12 Ollie Devoto, 13 Henry Slade, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 15 Josh Hodge
Replacements: 16 Jack Innard, 17 Danny Southworth, 18 Marcus Street, 19 Lewis Pearson, 20 Greg Fisilau, 21 Stu Townsend, 22 Will Haydon-Wood, 23 Zack Wimbush
Bath Rugby: 1 Beno Obano, 2 Tom Dunn, 3 Thomas du Toit, 4 Quinn Roux, 5 Charlie Ewels, 6 Ted Hill, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Alfie Barbeary, 9 Ben Spencer (c), 10 Finn Russell, 11 Will Muir, 12 Cameron Redpath, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 15 Matt Gallagher
Replacements: 16 Niall Annett, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Elliott Stooke, 20 Miles Reid, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Jaco Coetzee
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Well the other idea I had been toying with which I think is still used in football, is something like each pool winners of the Challenge Cup gets entry into the round of 16 etc (or whateveer equivalnt entry point we can come up with) in the Champions Cup.
Those T2 sides could play a pool or some simple comp with the bottom dwellers (that was actually something else I liked in Jones structure, he left out 2 English sides alltogehter, 4+4-2), and then come into the Challenge Cup when those top4 sides go up?
That idea just helps keep a nice balance for me. I like both comps having exactly the same structure, and raising 4 or so T2 sides requires that to break in some manner.
Neither. You have a situation where like the Stormers lose to la Rochelle in Ro16 but lose out to a lower performing league team in Benneton (5th place v 7th) just because they made it to the semis of Challenge Cup.
Go to commentsWalter has been permanently psychologically damaged since his wife left him and moved in with a man from Sydney.
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