We ended our losing run with a victory against Northampton yesterday, which has raised Saracens' spirits a little after the news that Richard Hill's operation last week will put him out for at least six months, if not nine.

Richard is one of the game's Darth Vaders - he specialises in the dark side of things, and that's where his power comes from. You don't see him during a game, then you look at the match statistics and realise that he's put in more than 20 tackles.

We knew we were going to be without him for the international games this autumn and next spring, but losing him for everything else as well will be tough for us. He's an emblematic figure in the club, a massive worker who doesn't talk a lot but leads by example, in the mould of the current France captain Fabien Pelous.

What is remarkable about Richard is that he can do three tackles in the same phase of play, and what's more you never see him go backwards in the tackle. I'm actually surprised that he has not had more major injuries in his career. He's one of the guys who will always put in the extra hour's work in the gym and he has thrived on it. And he puts it to good use as well - ball in hand, Richard is pretty rapid, faster than a few scrum-halves I've seen in my time.

It's going to create an opening for the player I call Jean-Pierre Rives Jnr, David Seymour, who has only just turned 20 and has come through from our academy. He has blond curly hair which makes me wonder if Jean-Pierre didn't leave some genes floating around in England during a France tour many years ago. Seymour was putting in tackles all over the place yesterday afternoon and didn't come off badly against Corne Krige and Andrew Blowers.

Richard's injury leaves the England coach Andy Robinson bereft as well. Like us he's lost a keystone of his team, a foundation for the après -Sir Clive rebuilding process. Then again, England are not exactly strapped for promising back-row players right now, with Lewis Moody and James Forrester back from injury, and there could also be a chance for Joe Worsley to cement his place.

Richard's injury does make me reflect yet again on the demands of the modern game. You only had to watch Leicester playing Bath on Saturday to realise that, in terms of its physicality, rugby is still becoming more and more intense. That's no surprise in one way - in England the players seem to do more physical training than they do rugby training and they are getting bigger and quicker all the time. That makes for a faster game with more and bigger tackles and fewer breaks in play.

I'm not a big enthusiast where all this is concerned. We are rugby players, not robots, and it's leading to several problems: it's harder for players to keep their enthusiasm up year in, year out; it takes a while for a young player to get into the rhythm of it and then you get the impression they are playing too much.

There are definitely more injuries and they are bigger and nastier than before. In the past you used to see little twists and muscle tears; now we are moving straight on to ligament injuries and fractures without anything in between. There's a certain logic in it - players are building up more, creating greater muscle bulk, and that puts more pressure on the tendons and ligaments. Then they are getting bigger, harder impacts on the pitch.

This isn't going to change, either. The powers that be are not going to come up with a structure to the season that will allow the players any respite - we will be playing on Boxing Day and New Year's Day this year as usual. But the standard at club level will continue to rise - just look at the average number of internationals in any given Premiership game.

And at least we are not playing in France, where they have 52 games to shoehorn into a 40-week season. There they have seen a 20% increase in injuries in the opening weeks of the Championnat compared with last year. That puts our problems into perspective, but it will be cold comfort as we contemplate life sans Richard.