Henry Pollock: Hat-trick for England against Fiji makes back row’s case to start for Steve Borthwick

The Fiji game was never going to deliver a clear answer.

By the time Pollock came on, the Pacific Islanders were 27 points down on the scoreboard, a man down after Simione Kuruvoli’s red card, and losing heart fast.

With space aplenty and defence scarce, it was a perfect playground for Pollock to run amok.

Ashton saw enough to make a judgement, though.

“England have a kid who mixes things up and does it very differently,” Ashton said.

“He has beaten the Fijians for pure speed on three occasions. I don’t know what we are waiting for. Stop messing about and put him in. He has to start next week.”

Borthwick, the man who will actually make the call, would not be drawn.

“You can justify it either way,” he said on whether Pollock should be starting or making an impact off the bench.

“There were a lot of people involved in setting up those tries. I know the media try to highlight individuals.”

In fairness, against such scrappy opposition, it was difficult to draw any definite conclusions about England as a collective.

And there were a few other candidates to share the spotlight with Pollock

Noah Caluori, Saracens’ teen try-scoring prodigy, and Benhard Janse van Rensburg, the former Baby Bok who is newly qualified for England on residency, both came off the bench and went over for popular debut tries.

But Pollock, inevitably, took centre stage.

In Friday’s captain’s run, as England trained on the Hill Dickinson Stadium surface for the first time, Earl jokingly chided Pollock for warming up in front of the touchline photographers.

There was certainly no shortage of opportunities to snap him on Saturday. Argentina await England next time out, Pollock potentially the man in focus again.