WARRINGTON Wolves prop Chris Hill has become a plumber – but fans needn’t worry as he will run his new business alongside his playing duties.

The 27-year-old England international has set up Premier Plumbing with a friend having studied for his qualifications at Warrington Collegiate since signing for the club in 2012.

Chris caught the plumbing bug during a work experience spell in high school but missed his chance to train as an apprentice.

He said: “I did a work experience when I was at school and that was something I was interested in.

“But like you do at 16 or 17 when you leave school, I thought I’ll do it next week – and I actually missed the boat.

“It was the time when plumbing and joinery was the thing to do with apprenticeships left, right and centre.

“I went one week and the spaces were gone, so I never got back into it.

“But when I first came to the club Karl Fitzpatrick put me on to the college and it was something I was interested in doing at night.

“So I’ve done the last three years, two nights a week.

“It’s something I wanted to do, something I enjoy, something outside of rugby that takes my mind off it, meeting different people who aren’t always involved in rugby and don’t really know who Warrington are.

“So after that me and my mate did a few jobs and that and we said why don’t we just set up our own business?

“We’ll go for it and just see where it takes us.

“That’s not to say that I won’t coach if the opportunity arises but it’s something I enjoy doing as well and it’s something away from rugby.

“My business partner still actually works so we’re just trying to get enough so he can get on with the jobs.

“But I’ll be jumping on jobs – I want to keep my hand in it because after three or four months off you start losing little tricks of the trade.”

In recent years there has been a big drive to give rugby league players skills that they can use outside rugby when their playing career comes to an end.

Chris added: “I think everyone just thinks they’ll just get a job in rugby, that they’ll be a conditioner or something, but it just doesn’t work like that.

“I spoke to Roger Draper when he first came here about having ex-players on the other side of it – on the marketing side of it and the business side of it because they know what the playing sides like but they want to know how its run.”

But it’s not the first time Chris has worked while playing rugby – he worked as a personal trainer when he was playing part time in the Championship with Leigh.

He said: “I was part time at Leigh so I got my level three personal training while I was there because I worked at a gym.

“The bloke who owned the gym was conditioner at Leigh so it worked well for me, I could get time off when I needed and stuff like that so it worked well.”

If you’d like Chris to sort out your plumbing call 07938 941978 or email sales@premierplumbingltd.co.uk