England have been forced into making a late change to their match day squad, as George Martin has been ruled out of the Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland. Bath forward Ted Hill has stepped up to the hour of need, and will throw his Clark Kent glasses to the side, to be England’s resident ‘Superman’ in the eyes of his captain Maro Itoje.
Hill has been training as a lock this week in preparation of his call-up, as the Bath man is equally adapted to the back row of the scrum. Itoje will likely bind up in the engine room with Hill this Saturday, with Ollie Chessum named to start at second row for the third round of the Six Nations. Whilst Hill may not be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, Itoje certainly finds comparisons between the Bath man and the DC comics hero.
Find your local Greene King and settle in for the 2025 Six Nations!
“I am very happy for Ted.” Itoje said, at this afternoon’s England media session. “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.”
Whilst Hill could well provide England with their Superman this Saturday, a man who has been a real Kryptonite for Steve Borthwick sides in recent years has been Scotland fly half Finn Russell. Whilst Russell is an ordinary human with no superpowers, the halfback possesses an incredible mind to orchestrate a match-winning attack, akin to that of Superman’s arch-nemisis Lex Luthor.
“Finn is obviously a good player, we all know he’s a good player and he requires a certain amount of attention.” Itoje said. “Just with France (and Antoine Dupont), same with Scotland, you can’t focus on any one player. Rugby is, in my opinion, the greatest team game there is and no one can do it all by themselves.
“Whilst we need to make him have a bad day at the office, we also have to pay respect to their back-row, wingers, tight five, his inside back partners. They have a number of threats throughout their team. They’re all good players, and play rugby at a high level. We need to have a consistent approach through the whole game.
“He’s a talented player, he’s played really well for Scotland thus far. We want to make sure he has a bad game. Similar with other good players from other nations, you don’t just put all of your attention on him because that puts other people into space. You obviously want to put loads of pressure on him and force him into bad decisions, but you have to be aware of all of the other threats they have. Scotland are a good team, they have a number of other threats. We need to make sure that we are ready to deal with all of that.”
Editors picks:
- England legend Chris Ashton previews the Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland
- Gabby Logan’s son will start against England this weekend in the Six Nations
- Makers and Breakers: England team to play Scotland in 2025 Six Nations
- British & Irish Lions to play France in first match of its kind
The post Maro Itoje: Ted Hill’s ‘Superman’ style late call-up for England clash with Scotland appeared first on Ruck.
