The Japan-based lock has captained his country before and has been given the armband for the non-cap clash at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane after coming off the bench in the two Tests against Australia.
“He’s captained Wales before in Argentina in 2018 and he did a great job out there. We had a chat about what happened in the past and had a heart to heart about that,” said Gatland.
Hill was interviewed by police for his part in an incident three years ago in which a woman’s house was damaged. He was not charged but issued an apology through a statement at the time.
He was playing for Cardiff Blues at the time, but left Wales for a club career in Japan later that year. After a three-year absence from the Wales team, Hill he returned to the Wales set-up for the summer series.
“Cory said to me he made a mistake three years ago and he regrets what happened. Young men do make mistakes,” added Gatland.
“For me, it’s about putting that to one side and picking someone who has rugby experience and knowledge and who has the rugby respect from the rest of the players in the squad.”
“We had an honest discussion about what happened, and Cory was very upfront with me about that. I’ve been clear that people do make mistakes in life and make some decisions or actions that they wish didn’t happen.
“But you can’t keep holding everyone at ransom over that. At some stage, you’ve got to move on and move past that and that’s what we’re trying to do as a group.
“He’s been good for this young group of players with his experience, and he’s taken that role at training sessions and team meetings, making sure he speaks. People take notice of someone with that sort of experience.”
Hill will pack down with Dafydd Jenkins in the second row to allow Christ Tshiunza to drop back into the back row along with Taine Plumtree and Mackenzie Martin.
It will be a third different position in as many games in Australia for Plumtree, who wore No 6 in the first Test, No 8 and the second and now wears No 7 in Brisbane.
“It’s not a small back-row in terms of the size of them all. It’ll be interesting to see how they go,” admitted Gatland.
“In fairness, Christ will hopefully fit in there easily. Mackenzie has trained the best I’ve seen him train in terms of the way he went at it.
“He’s still a young man and the challenge for him is to stay in the moment and stay switched on. I’m looking forward to seeing how that trio goes.”
There will be a first appearance on the wing for rugby league convert Regan Grace, who has yet to play a senior competitive match since moving from St Helens to Racing 92 and then Bath. AnAchilles tendon injury wrecked his dreams o playing in the Top 14 with Racing and he managed two friendly appearances for Bath last season after finally putting his injury woes behind him.
With new cap Josh Hathaway unavailable through injury, Grace gets his chance to start.
“We had a big discussion last week about whether we threw him in at the deep end in terms of a Test match, but we felt he needed a little bit more time in the environment,” said Gatland.
“He’s been recovering from a pretty horrendous Achilles injury. He’s taken time in terms of his rehab and made sure he’s done everything right and we’ve been looking after him as well.
“He’s sharp, he’s explosive and we’ve got to try to make sure we get the ball in his hands as much as we can, without having too many high expectations. He’s not played a lot of rugby since coming back from league.
“There’ll be no pressure on him from my part. Just get his hands on the ball, enjoy it and let’s see what he can do.”
