Henry Pollock: Northampton back row on Leinster, Lions and winding up players

Pollock is harder to warm to when you are up against him.

Woolford, Pollock’s Bedford team-mate, also faced him in the Blues’ annual pre-season fixture against Saints.

“On the pitch he is very loud, very confrontational, very in-your-face,” Woolford remembers.

“He just exhausts you, as much mentally and emotionally as physically. But he has backed it up at every level he has stepped up to.”

In the teams’ most recent match, one Bedford player attempted to sledge back at Pollock, suggesting he would be back with the Blues on loan by October.

Instead, by then, Pollock was a Premiership regular.

“Being annoying is part of my game,” Pollock agrees.

“I want to wind the opposition up; I want to get under their skin. It is something I relish.”

This weekend he will be digging into Leinster in a re-run of last season’s Champions Cup semi-final.

The Irish giants could field back-row trio Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan.

“It is probably one of the best back rows there is,” says Pollock. “I am just excited to be able to say I played against them. To share the field with them is special.”

But the deference won’t last past the first whistle.

“They are beatable,” he adds. “We definitely see parts of their game we can attack and go after and hopefully ruffle a few feathers.”

If Pollock’s streak of success extends to the Aviva Stadium and his final and toughest Lions audition, he could well make the squad cut five days later.

“I have heard the rumours and stuff, but as a player you can’t control that,” he says.

“I just have to keep playing well, and if it happens, it happens.”

So far in his career, things invariably do.