The guest list for the event was :

Richard Hill

Jill Douglas hosted the event

Chris Cowdery ran the auction

Lawrence Dallaglio

Neil Back

Kris Chesney

Victor Ubogo

Lunch was good for mass produced food. Pate to start with, followed by Chicken with Mediterranean vegetables and Blackcurrant Mousse for pudding. We sat on a table with other non-corporate hospitality types, which was a relief.  Next to Monica was the Saracens Commercial Manager, Neil Armit, and the upshot of a conversation regarding the future of the club is that Saracens are very committed to finding a new home away from Vicarage Road which would be more sustainable (sorry, nothing more than we already know).  The others on our table (my memory for names is useless) were also season ticket holders, it was good to chat with them.  For once we won a prize in the raffle, unfortunately of all the prizes to win it was the case of Guinness, neither of us are Guinness drinkers!

After lunch there was a charity auction which Chris Cowdery led, items included a round of Golf with Richard and the commemorative boots that he wore in his last match against Bristol. This was then followed by a short film showing highlights of Richard's career from his days at Salisbury as well as Saracens and his distinguished achievements as an England and British Lions player. There were comments too from the likes of Jonny Wilkinson and Sir Clive Woodward. In particular, Clive mentioned how he never dropped Richard whilst in charge of England, which Dallaglio and Back had something to say about!

Jill Douglas then took the stage and invited Richard to join her. She asked him many questions including the highs and lows of his career and what he would be doing next. Richard spoke how he and Claire planned to spend the summer travelling and then in September he would take on a mentoring role with younger players at the club and also work on the corporate / business team at Saracens too. As well as being around on match days and continuing his involvement with various charities, especially the Saracens Sport Foundation, to which he is a trustee.

Finally, Lawrence Dallaglio and Neil Back came onto the stage and Jill Douglas continued asking questions to the three of them. It's hard to know what to mention in particular as they spoke about many different things. They talked a lot about their time as England players and how they felt there was always competition for their places in the team. How they enjoyed playing for England and how as a unit it was always good to be back together. This was something that the three of them felt was currently lacking from the England set up and their hopes for Martin Johnson were some consistency amongst the coaching staff, more respect from the players and a better focus on fitness levels. Jill talked to Dallaglio regarding the fact that Johnny always felt better seeing Richards face in the dressing room, Dallaglio's reaction was he looked round and thought thank f*** that Johnny is sitting there!

Richard was asked what rugby has given him, well I think his answer is echoed by the many people including myself who have played the game.  He said that the game has taught him about team work, discipline, camaraderie with team mates and for him especially a successful career playing the game. 

Our one big regret of the day was not having a photo taken with the England World Cup ‘Holy Trinity' unfortunately we chickened out of it! 

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