Henry Pollock of England has invited praise and criticism in equal measure for his colourful on-and-off the field antics.
Rassie Erasmus said all the right, diplomatically courteous things about a "dangerous" England side during his press conference this week, but inside the inner sanctum of the Springbok team room, you can bet the head coach has been singing a vastly different tune.
Unquestionably, Erasmus will be reminding his players of the arrogant refrain echoing out of the England camp late last year. Having enjoyed victories over the All Blacks, Pumas, Wallabies, and Fiji to conclude their campaign on an 11-match unbeaten streak, the message from Twickenham was clear. To paraphrase, it was: “What a pity we did not play the Springboks this autumn.” The insinuation was as subtle as a sledgehammer — had they met, they would have beaten the world champions.
Chief crower of the lot was, of course, rising loose forward Henry Pollock, who drew an amusingly sharp riposte from Duane Vermeulen. "The Great Duane" wryly remarked that he would consider coming out of retirement for the July 4 clash simply so he could go head-to-head with the cocky England No 8.
As fate would have it, England’s chariot came a spectacular cropper during the subsequent Six Nations, completely derailing all the hype about turning that 11-match streak into a world record. Instead, Steve Borthwick's men endured a miserable campaign — losing to Italy for the first time in history, alongside defeats to Scotland and Ireland — to slip down to a lowly sixth place in the World Rugby rankings.
