CHRIS HILL’s selection in the England squad was questioned by some supporters, but the veteran prop certainly had no doubt that his selection was fully merited.
“I don’t need to prove anything to anyone,” he said.
“I’ll prove it to myself. I’ll prove it to Shaun. Waney had the faith to bring me into this squad. I’ve not done it for a couple of years but I know I’m good enough to be here. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t do it.
“With being injured as well, mid-year, I thought I had a bit of form going in before that and I came out and did well with my recovery.
“It was a big injury, which could have left me out for the rest of the year, but I thought I did pretty well.
“You can never turn down playing for England, It doesn’t matter if you’re 21 or 38. You’re a long time retired. These are the best days of your life.”
Hill helped England destroy the Greeks at Bramall Lane in a record 94-4victory on Saturday.
“We have to be ruthless,” he said.
“That’s one of our trademarks. We’re coming into some big games now and if we want to go on and win it, we have to be ruthless with our actions.
“Plaudits go to Greece, though, They had a dig, stuck in the game and fair play to them.”
England will almost certainly face Papua Guinea next in the quarter-finals on Saturday at Wigan.
Hill describes them as a nation “that is definitely on the up”.
“They love it their Rugby League,” he said.
“They’ve slowly built into this competition and we know we have to be on next week.”
The Huddersfield forward played in Great Britain’s loss to the Kumuls in Port Moresby in 2019.
“A lot of the lads had not been over to PNG and experienced that humidity and everything about it,” he said.
“But it was a good learning curve and a lesson we learned harshly. It was another of life’s lessons and it was brilliant to play there in PNG. We know how proud they are. It’s their national sport and they’ll bring that pride again.”
