'He won't leave as big a hole as he would have done a year ago'

Rob Baxter has farewelled Jonny Hill as an Exeter player by suggesting the departure of the England lock to Sale this summer won’t be as problematic as it would have been a year ago. It was last December when it was confirmed that the soon-to-be 28-year-old was swapping the Chiefs for the Sharks. 

However, given that Hill has been having a terrible this season with injury and hasn’t played for club or country since early January, Exeter boss Baxter claimed the impending exit of the second row isn’t the massive headache it could have been.  

“He won’t leave as big a hole as he would have done a year ago because we haven’t had him for a year,” said Baxter when asked by RugbyPass how Hill would be remembered at Exeter, the club he joined in the summer of 2015 as a rookie from Gloucester.  

“Pretty much we literally haven't had him for a year. I think he has played a half-dozen games this season (six in the league, two in Europe) so you see what I mean, it’s a funny one. 

“We have probably had a year to get ready for him going which may well, in the long run, be good for us because it has meant that other guys have had game time, it has meant that we have strategised not having him around. That probably helped us a little bit.”

Baxter added that Hill will depart with the best wishes of Exeter and that anyone who claims there must have been some sort of clash that led to him signing for Sale are totally wide of the mark. “He is one of a number of key guys who played all their senior rugby in a time when we have been successful, so we have got to say he has had a great career here and he has been influential in the success we have had and he is one of those guys who goes on having achieved great things here. 

“Some people think that when guys move on it’s an issue for me. All I have ever said to the lads is I look at club loyalty as when you are here you work really hard to try and be good and be successful, we all work hard in trying to make it good and successful for us and for yourself and if you move on, you move on but loyalty is we work hard for each other while we are here. 

“That is it so I have no problem with these guys. When they decide to take different career paths that’s fine. I think some people think there has got to be some kind of a clash. It doesn’t. Sometimes career paths just don’t align and that is very much what happens and people move on. That is just the way professional sport is.”

Hill has been sidelined since January with a high ankle injury but Baxter reckons he should be fit to tour Australia with England in July along with Luke Cowan-Dickie and Jack Nowell, two other England players injured during the Guinness Six Nations and who have also been unavailable to their club.

“Luke and Jack should be in contention," said Baxter earlier at his media briefing on Wednesday. "Jack is actually in contention to play this week (against Harlequins), Luke isn’t but as far as England, Luke, Jack and Jonny Hill should be in contention for the tour.”