“Very few ever get a chance in rugby terms to get for the top of Everest. You have the chance today.”

Richard Hill was just 24 and with four England caps to his name when he heard that speech from Jim Telfer.

One of England’s greatest-ever players, Hill had only broken into the Test team in 1997 during the Five Nations but did enough to earn selection on the Lions Tour of South Africa, where he started the first and second Tests.

It launched an incredible career that was commemorated this summer as Hill was inducted into World Rugby’s Hall of Fame, the announcement coming as Hill followed The British & Irish Lions on their victorious Tour Down Under.

His own Lions exploits took him on three separate Tours, facing the Springboks, the Wallabies and the All Blacks, with the victorious first Tour logically the most memorable.

He recalled: “When you play for these sides, you want to be winning Test series, so the ‘97 Lions stands out. I went into that Tour as a very inexperienced Test rugby player.

“So I went into the matches against South Africa in quite a daunting environment. The current world champions, a team that were expected to bulldoze us. They had won on the biggest stage and were a very physical team. I don’t think people, particularly in South Africa, gave us much hope of winning one match, let alone anything more. They believed that the provincial teams were going to beat us.

“I had been playing with Francois Pienaar, who had told us about the passion of the provincial teams, the support they get.

“On the pitch, you are playing against some big men, men who were a size that I hadn’t been used to playing against, so as a team, we were very much geared up to playing a faster match than they would want or were used to playing.

“We’ve been lucky that it all got recorded so (the Everest speech) is there for all to see. It was a very impassioned call from Jim, recognising the importance, when you go out to South Africa and when you play against big men, if you start to dent their pride, they are going to come out fighting. So you’ve got to be prepared to step up twice as tall again.”

Hill played the full 80 minutes in the first Test before coming off with 20 minutes to go in the second in Durban as Jerry Guscott slotted the series-clinching drop goal.

Hill remembered: “I was on the sideline, pretty much in line with the drop goal, so I could see clearly that it was going over.

“That is what you want from your big-time players. He stepped up, saw there was an opportunity with time and space and took it.

“That is not to say that there weren’t other big moments. Gibbsy running over Os du Randt, Backy’s turnover on the sidelines, then there was also the collective pressure, the collective desire in defence, because there were times, particularly in the second Test when we were being put under pressure in defence.

“We stayed strong and limited their opportunities and where possible, shut down where they could build momentum.”

Four years later, Hill was firmly established as one of the most important members of Sir Clive Woodward’s England team and duly earned selection for a second Tour, once more against the world champions – this time Australia.

Again, the Lions triumphed in the opener and they were looking good in the second as they led 11-6 at half-time, with Hill their standout performer.

Unfortunately for him and the Lions, he was forced off just before the break by a stray elbow from Nathan Grey, and the Wallabies seized momentum to pull away and win 35-14.

That injury also kept him out of the third Test, although he remained in Australia for the decider, which the Wallabies won 29-23.

Reflecting on the second Test defeat, Hill said: “The biggest point was more that we didn’t score enough points in the first half. It felt like we had the attacking dominance, we certainly had attacking opportunities.

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“Fair play to Australia, they were defending courageously and stopping us, which meant we weren’t able to pull away on the scoreboard. While the score stayed close, it allowed anything to happen and clearly it did with the interception. Australia showed some class and some dominance later on.

“In terms of the personal incident, you can take some bigger knocks and it doesn’t have an impact but this time it did and it wasn’t just a case of ruling me out of that game, it took me out of the third Test as well.

“You’ve got to commend Australia for what they did, they were taken by surprise by the amount of red shirts in the Gabba (at the first Test). And then they started to make the stadium more gold.

“By the time it got to the third Test, they had worked out how to get the Lions supporters up in the gods and in the ends of the stands and turn the lights off. I remember going for a walk and you could hear all the Lions fans, the chants, but you couldn’t necessarily see them.”

Despite tearing his ACL a matter of months before, Hill battled his way back to make it on a third Lions Tour to New Zealand, even travelling to the States to try to speed up the recovery process.

Injury hit again in the first Test however, a second ACL tear ending his Tour early, as the Lions were beaten 3-0 by an outstanding All Blacks team.

For Hill though, it brough the curtain down on a remarkable Lions career, one that had started with the most famous of speeches on a Tour that reminded everyone of just what makes the team so special.

He added: “One thing we were conscious of when we left home (in 1997) was the narrative that this could be the last ever Lions Tour because we were into the professional era, it was the first professional Tour and it was already booked but would it continue?

“I think we can safely say, even now, we saw this summer that it’s an important part of the four-year cycle. Players get the opportunity to pull on that red jersey, this group have won the series and that’s a special feeling because it has not happened as much as we might have thought it would.”