Leinster legend warns Henry Pollock over putting ‘target on his own back’ as Northampton eye ‘greatest win’ in their history
Leinster legend Rob Kearney on Northampton Saints flanker Henry Pollock.
Henry Pollock has a target on his back going into the biggest club match of his life, three-time Investec Champions Cup winner Rob Kearney warned today.
England’s breakout star prides himself on getting under the skin of opponents. He annoys even his team-mates with his supreme self-confidence, yet one and all agree he is a prodigious talent.
On Saturday in Dublin the 20-year-old goes up against Josh van der Flier, fellow openside and former World Player of the Year, with both competing for British and Irish Lions selection.
That would make it a high-octane occasion enough even without it being a Champions Cup semi-final in Leinster‘s backyard, with the winner going forward to face holders Toulouse or Bordeaux in Cardiff on May 23.
Target on Pollock’s back
Kearney says the Blues know all about Pollock and will be primed for the threat posed by a youngster who is shortlisted for Player of the Tournament for scoring six tries in Saints’ six-game run to a second consecutive semi-final.
“He’s riding the crest of a wave as that new guy coming in,” the 98-cap Ireland and Lions full-back told Planet Rugby. “He has a huge amount of enthusiasm and energy and, let’s be honest, he plays the game differently.
“We have to admire and respect that we have different personalities in the game, but he does put a target on his own back. Maybe that’s what he enjoys – it’s the manner in which he gets himself up for games.
“Characters like that are far and few between,” added Kearney, one of the Premier Sports team on duty at the Aviva Stadium.
“Henry is still young and you don’t want to have a pop at him. But the manner in which those [types of characters] act and behave just puts a little bit more pressure on them to perform.”
Pollock says being annoying is “part of my game”. He admits he sets out to wind up the opposition. His own side too, more than occasionally. Just last month he gleefully told Saints team mates his 88,700 followers on Instagram was already the highest in the club.
“As much as he can divide opinion at times Henry always backs it up by performing,” said captain Fraser Dingwall. “There’s no doubt people understand how good a player he is.
“And if there’s someone that embodies embracing a challenge and wanting to fly into every single opportunity where you don’t shy away from anything and just confront it head on, Henry is that someone.”
Northampton will need that impossible-is-nothing attitude from every one of their players this weekend to spring a major shock against the odds-on competition favourites.
“You have to be somewhat realistic about it,” Kearney continued. “If Northampton win this game it will, be one of the greatest wins in the history of their club.
“It is going to be a really good test for Henry. We saw a little bit of him in the Six Nations, but not starting a game where there’s a bit of pressure on him.
“He is up against a player in Josh whose quality of performance over the last good long number of years has been exceptional. When he won World Player of the Year in 2022 he was head and shoulders above a lot of others.
“This year there has been, not a dip in performance, he was just a little bit quieter during the Six Nations. You could make that argument about an awful lot of the Irish boys.
“But he’s really come back into form in the Round of 16 and quarter-finals where his performances were back to what we expect. He’s in a great place at the moment.”
Those two games saw Leinster demolish Harlequins 62-0 and Glasgow 52-0. “Utterly ruthless, utterly relentless,” was Kearney’s verdict on the previous round.
With the finish line now coming into view the question is whether Leinster will tighten up, remember back to the last three finals, each of which they lost.
“Coming off the back of three lost finals has to have an impact,” Kearney acknowledged. “It’s there living in your subconscious.
“To give Leinster credit, you would argue they’re a better team this year than they were last year. They’ve taken all the disappointment of the last few years and been able to put it into a new season where they’ve improved an awful lot of components of their game.
“Defensively, they’re a completely different outfit to last year. That real aggressive blitz defence takes time to get right, but we’ve seen now, in the last couple of months, that there’s a genuine belief and confidence in the system.
“You take that and you throw in three world class rugby players in RG [Snyman], Jordie [Barrett] and [Rabah] Slimani: you suspect the sole reason they were brought in was to bring them off the bench in the championship minutes, where they’ve come short in the last three years.”
Leinster enter of a loss
Asked whether there could be a risk of complacency in the ranks of his former team, given they have scored 142 Champions Cup points since last conceding, Kearney paused.
“There’s always that danger when you’ve dismantled teams in the fashion they did in the round of 16 and quarters,” he said. “I think one of the beneficial things for Leinster is that, only last year, they got probably the biggest scare of their season from Northampton.
“A year is not a very long time in the memories of rugby players. They know what Northampton are capable of as a team. They play as good and as expansive an attacking style of rugby as anyone in the Premiership.
“Another good thing for Leinster was losing at Scarlets last week in the URC. It meant the whole vibe and atmosphere when the squad came together at the start of the week was very different.
“They’d had a little bit of a kick up the backside. Even though it’s not going to be the same players on the field, the whole environment and focus of the week has been given a little bit of a sharpen.”
Rob Kearney is part of the Premier Sports team bringing all the action from the Investec Champions Cup semi-final between Leinster and Northampton Saints this Saturday. With a full-hour of build-up from the Aviva Stadium, join the Premier Sports team of Martin Bayfield, Pat Lam, Lawrence Dallaglio, John Barclay, Andy Goode, Miles Harrison, Ryan Wilson and analyst Ross Hamilton for this must-see international club rugby showdown. All the action starts at 4.30pm on Premier Sports 1. To watch visit www.premiersports.com.
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