Saints star Henry Pollock wants to be an England starter, but happy to bide his time
Saints star Henry Pollock admits he is desperate to be a regular starter for England - but says he happy to bide his time for that to happen, and will play whatever role he is asked to help his country.
Flanker Pollock stole the show as England thrashed Fiji 73-8 in the Nations Championship at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday, scoring a 25-minute hat-trick after entering the fray as a second-half replacement.
He completed his treble in the last minute, and his performance set the seal on an 11-try demolition, with England bouncing back from their defeat in South Africa a week earlier, and bringing a welcome end to a run of five straight Test defeats.
Pollock claimed his 12th England cap on Merseyside, but he has only made one start since bursting on to the rugby scene and making his England debut in January, 2025.
The clamour is growing for head coach Steve Borthwick to start the 21-year-old in Saturday's next Championship clash against Argentina in Santiago del Estero.
Pollock says he would relish such an opportunity, but will also be ready to once again do the business from the bench if that's what's required.
"A big thing for me at the minute is wanting to get that starting shirt," said Pollock.
"But ultimately there’s so many good boys in this team and your role can change week to week.
"I’m trying to focus on myself and focus on my performances and then on the back of that I can get results.”
Pollock also revealed he has spoken to Borthwick about his role in the squad.
“We’ve had a conversation about it, and he said to just go out there and be yourself," said Pollock.
"Hopefully I did that and hopefully he saw enough in me but at the same time, the depth in this squad is crazy good so I’m happy at any role I’m playing as long as I’m in the team.”
Borthwick was also asked about Pollock's role, and whether he would be more effective as a starter or impacting the game as a substitute.
"You can justify it either way," said the head coach. "There were a lot of people involved in setting up those tries.
"I know the media try to highlight individuals, but I'd rather highlight the team."
Pollock's Saints club-mates Alex Coles, Tommy Freeman and Fin Smith all started against Fiji, with the latter enjoying a strong game and collecting 18 points as he landed nine conversions.
Speaking to ITV, Smith admitted it has been a tough time as the side suffered five straight losses, but said: "It has been tough and not a comfortable place to be.
"We flipped the narrative, playing for England is the greatest honour and we should enjoy these years.
"We let the shackles off. There were some better bits of attack, although it was still clunky at times.
"But you will never turn down scoring 11 tries."
Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell was also involved, but only briefly as he suffered a hamstring injury just nine minutes after coming off the bench in the second half.
It is the latest in a string of hamstring issues in recent months for Mitchell, who has been ruled out of the trip to Argentina.
Borthwick said: “I don’t know at this stage whether it’s a recurrence of the hamstring injury he’s had a couple of times already this season.
"Nor can I confirm the length at this early stage of how long he’s going to be absent for, but he won’t be able to be part of next week.”
Elsewhere, Saints centre Rory Hutchinson was part of the Scotland team that was beaten 42-28 by South at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.
Hutchinson played for 63 minutes before being replaced.
He will be hoping to be involved on Saturday as the Scots take on Fiji at Murrayfield in their next Nations Championship clash (ko 2.10pm).