Hill climbs final mountain in vain
Grasping a well-earned bottle of Heineken in one hand, he looked genuinely in bits — just like his left knee – but he refused to wave goodbye just yet. He described it as an emotional afternoon as he begins to bid farewell to the game and to a glittering career.
“At the moment it’s a time to reflect – I’m not going to make any decisions today or tomorrow. It was good to play at that level today. There have been many proud moments. Many proud moments got us where we are today, purely in this competition. The guys put it in today, and it’s a hard pill to take but it’s one we have to take.”
He was, naturally, heartbroken having come so close to reaching his first Heineken Cup final, but paid tribute to the travelling Sarries support that added to the emotion of his last big day with the Men in Black.
“Naturally we’re gutted – there were a lot of emotions with today. We were well aware we were going to be outnumbered in terms of support, but the atmosphere was superb. They created a lot of noise but the guys supporting Saracens were equally creating their part of the atmosphere.”
Hill never reached the heights of his quarter-final display, but he was there right to the end fighting the good fight. He was the last Saracens man to touch the ball as he broke through the Reds line, but was muscled to the ground by both David Wallace and Denis Hurley. The penalty was awarded to Munster.
“I remember Moses Rauluni going through, offloading to me and then I was enveloped by two tacklers. At the end of the day the referee has given a penalty. I’m not going to stand here and say which way it should have gone but it has been given against us. We came a long way and it wasn’t to be.”
He added: “In that last minutes we were fighting for that one break, that one elusive runner who manages to get in behind. Although we did create a couple of opportunities, I remember Kameli Moses going through – they have a very sound defence. They cut off the passes that potentially could have been try scoring passes. They nullified it.
“Conditions weren’t the greatest, trying to create a position to go for a safe drop goal but unfortunately we just couldn’t control the ball just as well for that particular time.”
He believes the try before half time was the decisive moment. “The try before half time was a killer blow. It was a lack of concentration. We allowed them get momentum with a quick tap penalty and eventually ended up with them in our 22 and Alan going over under the posts.”
Hill also paid tribute to coach Alan Gaffney, who was the inspiration behind their path to the semi-final. “Alan has been brilliant – there’s no doubt that in the last two years we’ve come along way as a team as a squad. We have made a number of semi-finals, it’s a case of building on it year in, year out and next season the aim has got to be to get to the level of consistency to convert one of these semi-finals into a final.”
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