Loose Pass: Why the Nations Championship will carry an ‘asterisk’ while polarising Henry Pollock is becoming a dangerous presence
Loose Pass is here to delve into the major talking points in the sport.
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with November’s injury lists and Henry Pollock’s ill-conceived antics.
International season will test each nation’s depth
While it might be true that the Nations Championship has indeed brought a frisson of intrigue to the July and November Test seasons despite the peculiar schedules and compromises of Fiji’s advantages, the current rash of injuries decimating the European teams, as well as taking a nibble out of South Africa, was probably not what the inaugural edition could really have done with.
France will be taking on South Africa, in what is surely the highlight fixture of the November schedule, without almost a team’s worth of players because of knocks and niggles, including Mathieu Jalibert and Thomas Ramos.
Ireland, whose clash against South Africa is a not-distant second place in that highlight list, are also without several front-liners, including centre Garry Ringrose and fly-half Jack Crowley, and with fly-half Sam Prendergast nursing an injury. England’s injury list is also significant, just as Steve Borthwick needs to settle on his combinations one year out from the World Cup. No Sam Underhill or Guy Pepper, fly-half Fin Smith struggling to be fit for the opener, Henry Arundell still a way off, and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso struggling.
Indeed, the front page of this website, much more through coincidence than plan, reads like a bulletin board. ‘Santi Carreras fears realised’, ‘Erasmus sweats on key duo’, Ringrose out as injury crisis worsens’, ‘Tandy suffers fresh injury blow’, ‘Galthie forced to reshuffle’.
Teams have more established depth these days, with perhaps Wales the current exception there, but it’s hard to escape the notion that while Europe’s teams are already slogging their way through a gruelling schedule of domestic and European rugby, Australia and New Zealand – long-term casualties from July and August aside – are coming into November looking somewhat fresher and with less late improvisation needed from the coaches to the preparation of their squads.
How much of a difference will this actually make? Impossible to answer – only hindsight, that most precise of sciences, will give a good answer. But Scotland will not have had a lot of time together ahead of the clash with New Zealand, while England’s preparations for the clash with Australia will not be helped by the timing of the intensity of derby day last weekend (more on that in a moment), while Australia’s last fortnight has been a welcome bit of peace and quiet after the Bledisloe adventures.
There’s nothing like a little mid-season break to freshen up some worn-out sinews, but Britain, Ireland, France and Italy’s finest have, for the large part, been knocking lumps out of each other for six weeks, with a seventh looming in some cases, in other cases including whistle-stop trips down to South Africa and back. By the climax of it all on November 28, that’ll be eleven straight weeks. Not long after that, the European Cup kicks off again, and then we’re into the Six Nations. And then there’s not a lot left before the World Cup.
The schedule still feels too full. Teams will get months to prepare for the World Cup and will, horrible misfortune notwithstanding, be at full strength and fresher than at any other time in the season cycle. Only then do we really see who the best teams are. The Nations Championship winners will have bragging rights of sorts, but the shoehorning it all into the season like it is for the European teams just carries a faint asterisk with it.
Pollock antics unwelcome just before international get-together
There’s an argument doing the rounds that derby day, which was quite easily the most intense weekend of the four PREM weekends so far, was just what the English players needed as the international season hove into view.
The counter-argument is how healthy the brotherly love in the England camp might remain in the event of derby day conflicts.
Mostly, this was not much of a question. But the polarising figure of Henry Pollock is becoming a dangerous presence within a camp that needs to be united.
Saturday’s fracas had nothing to do with Pollock to start with. He wanted it to, ripping the ball off Adam Radwan after the latter was tackled into touch and celebrating in the latter’s face as well as baiting the home fans, but Radwan was man enough to walk away, his patience only snapping when Alex Mitchell finished off Pollock’s initial wind-up work.
Pollock, the spotlight off him, resolutely worked his way back into it. He sneaked around the edges of it all, grabbed Ollie Chessum – who has previous when it comes to policing Pollock, but who is also showing consistently the potential to be an English leadership group member at the very least – wrenched him back by the shirt collar and then visibly began telling ‘butter wouldn’t melt in the mouth’ tales to the referee when Chessum grabbed his shirt back. Craig Maxwell-Keys didn’t bat an eyelid. There was nothing to bat one at.
As the players made their way up the steps, it should have been over. It was over. In everyone’s mind but Pollock’s. Chessum, fully over it, jerked his thumb in the direction of the dressing room. Over. Done. Get on with it. And so Pollock began ‘tying his shoelaces’, obstructing not only Chessum, but all of the other players who wanted to get up the stairs and into the sanctuary. All about him. Even Mitchell, who ought to have been at his side in spirit, stood off looking sheepish as Chessum shoved Pollock up the stairs.
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How long does he get away with it? How long before even his own team-mates begin to lose patience? He was invisible after half-time (he was hardly stand-out in the first half either), before being hooked 12 minutes in. Meanwhile, Leicester regrouped, channelled the anger, and blew Northampton away. You need to earn your moments in the spotlight. Pollock earned very little on Saturday.
There may be animosity among the England team-mates at the squad get-together, there may not be, but it has to be lurking in the minds of the senior players of the team that of England’s many yellow cards this year, Pollock has the highest rate of cards per minute played in an England shirt, while when it comes to the really big games in the white jersey, Pollock is yet to deliver a lot that is tangible. That penchant for attention-seeking (how many times did he glance at the camera during that fracas?) does not fit into the culture among England’s better and more senior players. How long before England start to wonder if the distractions are worth it?
