Henry Pollock: Jamie George on England’s ‘brilliant idiot’

Jamie George says England team-mate Henry Pollock is a personality without precedent in rugby, adding the 20-year-old back row is a “genuinely fascinating” character.

Pollock enjoyed a breakthrough campaign last season, which began on the bench for Northampton and ended with two tries on his England debut, appearing in the Champions Cup final, and earning selection for the British and Irish Lions.

His on-pitch energy, exuberant celebrations and unabashed confidence have made him one of the game’s stars, with his lick-lipping face-down of New Zealand’s haka, external and role in a celebratory TikTok dance last month just the latest in a string of viral moments.

His Saints team-mate Fin Smith revealed on Wednesday that Pollock had sent Lions assistant coach Johnny Sexton pictures of Sexton crying after Ireland were knocked out of the 2023 Rugby World Cup as part of a running joke between the two during this summer’s tour of Australia.

“Pollock and I had the funniest relationship with [Sexton] ever, we just took the mick out of him the whole time,” Smith told the Saints Show.

“Johnny was great and enjoyed having a bit of banter with us too.”

“Henry is different – I have never met anyone like him,” George told Rugby Union Weekly of Pollock.

“He is himself, unapologetically himself and he is genuinely fascinating – he is an energy ball I have never seen before.

“He has an insane level of confidence. He walks into the room and tries to dominate everything and the kid is 19. It is mad.

“But he is genuinely brilliant. He is an idiot, but he is our idiot.”