Former Bristol coach Hill begins life in France with a victory

Former Bristol coach  Richard Hill made a winning start to his new career in France – and is now setting his sights on promotion.

Hill, who was head coach at Bristol from 2003 until February this year, took a few months out of the game before taking over at French third-tier side Chalon-sur-Saone in the summer.

They won their opening Federale 1 Pool 2 match at the weekend, easing to a 57-3 victory at Epernay – but are likely to face stiff competition from former top-flight club  Beziers for promotion.

“We scored eight tries at the weekend, so it was a good start against a newly-promoted side,” said Hill.

“Those games can always be a bit slippery because of the opposition’s enthusiasm – plus we had to leave at 6.30am for the trip to the Champagne region. But we were too strong for them on the day and played some really good stuff.

“I’m thoroughly enjoying it over here; it has already been a fantastic experience and I’m really enjoying the culture.

“It has been great to have a bit of a change. If you are working in the same old championship for a few years, you do need freshening up.”

Hill’s team face a long slog to secure promotion to Pro D2, with the third tier split into six pools of eight teams, before a lengthy end-of-season play-off competition.

And Chalon-sur-Saone, pool winners last season before losing in the play-offs, are among the favourites.

“There is a bit of pressure this season, because the objective is to get promotion to Pro D2,” said Hill, a fluent French speaker.

“It’s very important to finish top of your pool, so you can get a better seeding going into the play-offs.”

Hill, who had been used to working alongside Paul Hull and John Brain at Bristol Rugby, has been doing all of the coaching – including the forwards – at Chalon-sur-Saone.

He thought he had lured former Leicester prop Alex Moreno to take over as player/forwards coach, only to see him join Leeds.

And Hill is now on the lookout for a new forwards coach who can also play at tighthead prop.

“I’m on my own at the moment,” he said. “I’m doing everything here, but it takes me right back to my time at Gloucester.”

His side face Massy in their first home match of the campaign this weekend – and Hill is learning something new from every game Chalon play.

“It’s something new – and pre-season was a bit of an eye-opener,” he said.

“We played away at a team called Bedarrides – and the match was abandoned after 50 minutes. We made the mistake of scoring five tries and taking a 35-3 lead, which they didn’t like.

“Their players started punching and kicking everything that moved –  and put two of our players in hospital.”