Cornwell’s pride as two Hartpury products named in Lions squad
HARTPURY head coach Mark Cornwell has spoken with pride about former Hartpury College students Jonny Hill and Lewis Reeszammit after they were named in the 2021 British and Irish Lions squad.
Having seen Alex Cuthbert (2013) and Ross Moriarty (2017) tour with the Lions previously, we have had the experience before, but to have two Hartpury ‘products’ selected – and arguably a couple more in contention – is uncharted territory for the Rugby Academy, which was formed 20 years ago.
Both Hill and Rees-zammit spent two full seasons in the Hartpury AASE (now ACE) set-up and – perhaps unsurprisingly given Hartpury dominance at this age-grade – both were double championship winners.
Hill also went on the play a number of games for Hartpury RFC, in their National League days, and there may have been some expectation that Rees-zammit would have done the same had he not made such an immediate impact in first team rugby at Gloucester.
Cornwell, a former Gloucester second-row, said: “Jonny’s selection came as a little bit of a surprise to me and I’ve no doubt that there were a few other people in the same boat,” he said.
“Would they have put Jonny Hill in a Lions squad, ahead of some of those who have missed out? Possibly not.
“But once you start to think about the justification for it you can see that, particularly in the past two or three years, he has done absolutely brilliantly.
“He’s established himself in one of the best teams in the country at the moment – he’s getting picked every week for the Chiefs – and he’s certainly justified his selections by England.
“He was up against players like Tadgh Beirne and Jonny Gray for that Lions slot, but Warren Gatland and his coaches have gone for Jonny, so fair play to him.
“It’s great news for him and it’s great for us here at Hartpury.
“Louis was obviously far less of a shock,” said Cornwell.
“In the two years since he left Hartpury he has literally hit the ground running. He’s making all the headlines and scoring all the tries. He’s made his Welsh debut and, again, he’s gone flat out – scoring tries and showing everybody how quick he is.
“But it’s not only about his pace. It’s great to see just how much is overall game has developed. He’s always had the wheels, but now his aerial game is very strong – my guess is that Jonny May has been able to help him a lot in that area, as it’s something that he has also worked hard to develop over the past few seasons.
“So, no surprise at all that he made the squad, and he must have real chance now of making that starting line-up. He’s the sort of player that can make something from nothing, as we’ve seen plenty of times with Gloucester, and he’s got the sort of pace that the South Africans will have to be very wary of.”
More than 200 Hartpury alumni have played international rugby or signed professional contracts around the world.
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