Kyran Bracken reports on his progress of transforming Wanstead scrum-half George Hardy, 28, into a professional inside 12 months

My introduction to the England set-up back in the early ‘90s came with a lot of input and wisdom from Richard Hill. He was still at Bath in his twilight years at the time and what was so key for me were the pointers he gave me on rapid development – methods which still serve a purpose with regards to skillset today.
The way he trained was to work at the highest level of urgency. He would place his own thought processes under a blitzkrieg to gear his mind towards a...