Saracens 19 Ospreys 10: Hill climbs the heights again to put Ospreys in a fatal flap

(PA)

A funny thing, adversity. It brings out the worst in the weak, but when the strong get a whiff of it there is no more powerful motivating force on earth. Richard Hill is one of the strong ones: of all the England players who won the World Cup in 2003 he might have been the toughest of the lot, with the possible exception of another sporting Trappist by the name of Martin Osborne Johnson. The dear old stick plays on one leg these days and he will pack it in for good at the end of the season but here, when it really mattered, he delivered a performance for his club that rivalled anything he ever produced on behalf of his country.

Hill had not been on the field 15 days previously, when the Hook-Henson-Williams gang – Wales by any other name – splattered Saracens all over the Millennium Stadium in an EDF Energy Cup semi-final so one-sided it might have been prosecuted for impersonating a rugby match. But he shared in his mates' pain just as he shared, more directly, in the collective frustration they felt yesterday as decision after crucial decision went against them. His reaction was to redouble his already prodigious efforts and guide the Watford-based side to a first Heineken Cup semi-final.

He did not act alone in overturning the formbook and exploding every theory advanced in respect of this tie – Cobus Visagie, Hugh Vyvyan, Glen Jackson, Kevin Sorrell and the stick-insect wing Richard Haughton made any number of equally valid points during the course of a captivating contest in front of a capacity crowd at Vicarage Road – but as Alan Gaffney, the director of rugby, remarked: "Hill is one of the great players of the modern era, and what he did out there was phenomenal."

Gaffney also reported that the flanker had only 85 per cent movement in his ravaged left knee and that he would never again walk without a limp. Which rather begged a question of the man himself. "Why do I still do this? People ask me all the time, and I always give the same reply: I do it for days like this," Hill said. "And at club level, this experience is right up there with the best of them."

Right up there indeed. Many obstacles were stacked against Saracens yesterday: the grim memory of Cardiff, two disallowed tries – the television match official, Brian Fitzgerald, decided Paul Gustard and the implacable Vyvyan failed to ground the ball over the line – and a series of nasty injuries, the worst of which drew a thick black line under Andy Farrell's season. Yet the home side showed such iron commitment to the defensive duties – their physical bravery bordered on the reckless, the stupid, the insane – that neither Gavin Henson nor Shane Williams could break them down, despite digging deep into their box of tricks.

There was a similar air of futility about James Hook, the third member of Ospreys' celebrated attacking triumvirate, but unlike his partners he brought much of his indignity on himself. A couple of minutes before the interval, with Saracens leading by the odd penalty in three, he attempted to catch a deep kick behind his back a few metres from his own line – a piece of exhibitionism that called into question his entire approach to the occasion. He then compounded the error by missing touch and allowing Saracens to launch a raid that might easily have resulted in a try for Gustard.

"You have to appreciate that this is a young squad," said the Ospreys coach, Lyn Jones, a trifle defensively. He did not stay defensive for long. "When you come here in a one-off match, at this stage of a competition as important as the Heineken Cup, you need all your players to take the agenda on board. Yes, rugby is about being confident. But it is also about playing well." If Hook did not get the message from those comments there really is no hope for him, gifted as he may be.

Saracens reached the break aggrieved that they were not further in front for the referee, Alan Lewis, was exceptionally harsh in not awarding them the short-range penalty he had signalled during the build-up to Gustard's close-run thing. But they were not left fuming for long, for in the opening minute of the second half they had their one slice of good fortune. Neil de Kock's clearance under pressure bounced off the outstretched arm of Lee Byrne, thereby putting half a dozen retreating Saracens onside and allowing Adam Powell to feed Francisco Leonelli on a long run to the Ospreys line.

Jackson, infinitely more assured as a result of Hill's masterly subjugation of the predatory Marty Holah, converted from a wide angle and added a penalty and a drop goal to minimise the effect of a late scrambled try from Paul James, who had replaced the badly outscrummaged Duncan Jones in the Ospreys front row. "Down there in Cardiff, we were lucky to get away with a 30-point beating," the outside-half said. "But they hit everything on the front foot that day because we didn't turn up. We knew what we had to do to turn it around."

There have been few bigger turnarounds in recent memory. There again, there have been few more influential rugby players than a 34-year-old by the name of Hill.

Saracens: Try Leonelli; Conversion Jackson; Penalties Jackson 3; Drop goal Jackson. Ospreys: Try James; Conversion Hook; Penalty Hook.

Saracens: B Russell (F Leonelli, 31; M Rauluni, 70); R Haughton, K Sorrell, A Farrell (A Powell, 33), K Ratuvou; G Jackson, N De Kock (capt); N Lloyd, M Cairns (F Ongaro, 78), C Visagie; H Vyvyan, K Chesney (T Ryder, 78), P Gustard (D Barrell, 53), R Hill, B Skirving.

Ospreys: L Byrne; J Vaughton (A Brew, 67), S Parker, G Henson (A Bishop, 60), S Williams; J Hook, J Marshall; D Jones (P James, 53), H Bennett (R Hibbard, 53), A Jones, I Gough (I Evans, 61), A W Jones, J Thomas (F Tiatia, 48), M Holah, R Jones.

Referee: A Lewis (Ireland).

Semi-finals

*London Irish v Toulouse (Twickenham) *Saracens v Munster (Ricoh Arena)

Weekend of 26-27 April