Henry Pollock is the talk of British — and European — rugby after being selected for the British and Irish Lions at the age of 20 and after playing barely 30 minutes for England.
It’s one of the more remarkable call-ups in the proud, nearly 140-year history of the Lions.
Here’s what you need to know about this brilliant and brash rugby prodigy:
Who is Henry Pollock?
Pollock is a back-row forward who plays his club rugby for Northampton Saints in England.
He is 1.88 meters (6-foot-2) tall and weighs 100 kilograms (220 pounds), according to his club.
What is his background?
Born in Banbury, a town about 70 miles (112 kilometers) northwest of London, Pollock has a sporting family.
His mother, Hester, competed in triathlon at national level. His older sister, Zoe, has represented the University of Georgia in track (400 meters and 400-meter hurdles). And his brother, Angus, is a scratch golfer. Pollock himself competed in triathlons as a teenager.
“Mum is the reason I love sport. She introduced me to fitness,” Pollock told the BBC. “We would wake up at 5.30 a.m. for a two-hour swim session on a Saturday and then go and do a triathlon at school. It was mad, but looking back now it made me who I am.”
Pollock also was taken to mini-rugby by his father and, after impressive performances at secondary school, joined Northampton’s academy set-up for the under-13 season. He moved to Stowe School, a boarding school, at the age of 13 and was coached there by a former Northampton player, Grant Seely.
His rugby career so far
While captaining Northampton’s under-18 team, Pollock made his debut for the senior team — at age 17 — in a domestic cup competition on October 2022. He crossed for two tries, becoming Northampton’s youngest try-scorer in the professional era.
Pollock made his debut in the top-flight English Premiership in the 2023-24 season and also scored a try on his debut in the European Champions Cup, against Castres in December last year.
He has quickly become a regular in the first team and a standout, too. He scored tries in victories over Castres and Leinster in the knockout stage of the Champions Cup to help Northampton reach this month’s final against Bordeaux.
All this while studying part-time for a sports management degree at Loughborough University.
Does Pollock have an international pedigree?
Well, he was captain of England’s under-18 team, scored a hat trick on his England under-20s debut, was player of the tournament in the 2024 Six Nations under-20 tournament, and helped England win the world under-20 championship in July.
He started this year’s senior Six Nations in the England under-20s and finished it in the senior team, making his debut against Wales in the final round and scoring two tries as a 49th-minute replacement. That remains his only senior appearance for England.
What is Pollock’s playing style?
Pollock is extremely athletic — he can squat 230 kilograms (507 pounds) for three reps, bench press 140 kilograms (309 pounds) for two and has sprinting speeds of around 10 meters per second, according to a report from Britain’s Daily Telegraph — and extremely confident in his own ability.
Wearing with a distinctive black headband, he has celebrated tries with a swallow dive, has no issue getting in rivals’ faces and winding them up — he has been known to rip scrum caps off the heads of opponents — and can lead team talks despite his inexperience.
He backs up his brashness with his displays, though, notably last weekend when outshining Leinster’s back row of Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan. That’s the Ireland back row and it rubber-stamped Lions coach Andy Farrell’s decision to pick him to the tour of Australia.
What does Farrell say about Pollock?
Farrell has been aware of Pollock’s rise and is clearly impressed. Indeed, he believes this “confident, cocky” youngster can compete for a place on the test team.
“What do we want? Do we want a kid to show his confidence as a 23-year-old or 24-year-old instead of as a 20-year-old?” Farrell said. “It’s just about the here and now. If he’s performing against the type of quality that he has been doing, then he’s ready to compete.
“I think you’ll see the fight in him and I’m sure he’ll push all the others that didn’t realize he was coming. I’m sure that he’ll relish that.”
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