By David Hibell
June 9 2005

After a few years at London Irish the familiar face of Paul Hull returns to the Memorial ground as backs coach. (Though he was here most games anyway!) After a few years at London Irish the familiar face of Paul Hull returns to the Mem. (Though he was here most games anyway!)

It will provide a lot of continuity for the ex under 21 side that Paul coached so successfully after he was forced to retire from the game through injury, and he shares the same ethos as Richard Hill and Martin Haag. The under 21s that Paul coached played a fluid game, and it will be interesting to see what impact Hully has on the current squad.

During his playing days Huly covered just about every position in the backs, although full back is where he will be remembered most. Widely respected by opposition supporters, I heard some Gloucester fans in the shed refer to him as a player with a lot of class when he turned out for the south west against a touring all blacks team

The consensus amongst the Bristol supporters is that he was unfairly treated by England and deserved a lot more than the four caps he got. After he was player of the tour on their trip to South Africa Hully was injured during a match against Canada at Twickenham, all the hard work had been done in the match which was there for the taking, but his replacement, Mike Catt, came on and made a similar impact on the remainder of that one match to the one Hully had made consistently on the whole tour of South Africa and Hully never pulled the white jersey of England on again.

And for info on how popular and influential Hully was with the under 21s he coached you only have to speak to the players (or check the bow files for the interviews)

an interesting piece on the development of the under 21 age code nd who Englands first U21 team were is here
(cut & paste into browser)
http://www.irbu21.com/NEWS/u21+stepping+stone.htm