Henry Pollock has become the player opposition crowds love to hate, and the England flanker gave supporters in Buenos Aires fresh reason this week. Footage shared widely on social media showed the 20-year-old gesturing towards Argentina fans from the England team bus, a moment Los Pumas supporters read as an attempt to wind up the home crowd before Saturday's Nations Championship clash.
The incident fits a pattern that has trailed Pollock across the tour. In South Africa he was booed relentlessly, and a passer-by outside England's Johannesburg hotel told him he was viewed as "public enemy number one." Former Springbok Schalk Burger dismissed him as a "TikTok dancer who plays a bit of rugby," while Pollock had stoked the fire before that leg by posting "See you soon" alongside a South African flag and a blood-drop emoji.
England head coach Steve Borthwick has consistently framed the hostility as a compliment rather than a warning. "Teams see what he gives to his own team and they want to try and nullify that. I've seen that over and over, yet Henry Pollock just always seems to shine and thrive with a smile on his face," Borthwick said. "We want more personalities like that. We want more people playing rugby in that way, smiling like that."
Pollock's Northampton captain, George Furbank, says the abuse simply does not register with the flanker. "Every time we've spoken about the opposition hating him, he seems to go out and perform," Furbank said. "I genuinely think it doesn't actually bother him. I don't know how, because if that was me, I would be a little bit different."
The divide is less about his talent than his theatrics. To Borthwick it is box office; to the sceptics it is needless provocation that paints a target on England. Burger's "TikTok dancer" jibe captured the doubters, and the Buenos Aires footage handed them fresh ammunition. Borthwick again named the 20-year-old among the replacements for the Argentina Test, keeping faith with the pack that thrashed Fiji and reserving Pollock, who scored a hat-trick, made 75 metres and beat five defenders in 32 minutes off the bench in that game, for an impact role.
Borthwick, for his part, wants the exuberance without the recklessness. "I will challenge him to express himself, be himself, while also bringing the self sacrifice that a team sport needs. Do both," he said, describing Pollock as "larger than life" and a player who "gets people jumping up and down with joy." With Buenos Aires gripped by football World Cup fever and Argentine crowds in full voice, Pollock will not be short of motivation when he is sprung from the bench on Saturday.
