In English football, the fans’ teasing taunt for a player yet to prove his worth is “yes, but can he do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke?”
The English rugby version for Henry Pollock is now “yes, but can he do it in the thin air of Johannesburg on a Saturday afternoon in July?”
We are about to find out, as the youthful totem of Northampton Saints, having played a big part in his club regaining the Prem title at Twickenham on Saturday, heads into England camp with a Nations Championship trip to South Africa next on his bright horizon.
Pollock came leaping out of the players’ tunnel before this final, as we have come to expect of his whoop-and-holler persona, and very nearly tripped over. Oh, how a pratfall would have delighted his critics – those who think Pollock has more front than Harrods, but not enough when you delve onto the shelf marked “substance”.
By the end of a gripping, sweaty, often chaotic 26-17 win over Exeter Chiefs, the poster boy of the Prem must have won over a few of the sceptics by accumulating 45 carries and 35 tackles across this and the semi-final win over Leicester.
