Henry Pollock: England flanker extends deal with Northampton

Henry Pollock has brought an end to his contract stand-off with Northampton, saying it was ultimately “a very easy decision” to sign an extension with the defending Prem champions.

“I am very, very happy to sign here,” Pollock told BBC Radio Northampton.

“I have been here my whole career so it made sense for me to stay on the journey with such a young group of players, who are so ambitious.

“It was a very easy decision in the end.”

The 21-year-old, whose profile has exploded over the past two seasons after appearing for England and the British and Irish Lions, had been talked up as a “seven-figure player” during negotiations by his advisor Eddie Hearn.

However, the boxing promoter’s valuation was never likely to be met at Northampton or elsewhere in the Prem, given Saints’ star-studded line-up, the league’s £6.4m squad salary cap and rules over players moving between clubs.

The exact level of Pollock’s pay increase is unclear. While some sources have valued his new contract at £400,000 a year, others involved in the deal say the figure is higher.

It is certainly short of Scotland playmaker Finn Russell, who, as Bath’s marquee player, is on the league’s most lucrative package, worth about £1m a year.

Pollock’s pay puts him well ahead of most of his contemporaries in the Prem however.

His new deal is comfortably ahead of the average annual salary in the league (£191,000), the average earned by someone in his 20-22 age bracket (£106,000) and with his level of international experience (£224,000), as revealed by the latest league payroll data, covering the 2024-25 campaign., external

Only 4% of Prem players that season were paid in excess of £400,000 a year.

Pollock’s previous contract, signed in December 2024, is understood to have been worth about £150,000.

Northampton say his new deal is a “multi-year” agreement that keeps him at the club beyond the expiry of his previous contract in summer 2027.