It was a few minutes from the end of the first-half and the game had already been ripped away from a desperately disappointing England side when Joe McCarthy, Ireland’s gangling second row, went galloping through midfield, making an heroic but doomed break for the try-line.
He was brought down in the end and play was called back for an earlier infringement. McCarthy lay prone. Henry Pollock, all blonde hair, black head tape and bustle, all attitude and intent on the occasion of his first England start at the age of 21, rushed up to him and tried to wrestle the ball back.
McCarthy would not give it up, partly because he seemed too exhausted to move. Pollock slapped him over and over again on the back of the head, trying to get him to release it. McCarthy hung on. Eventually, Pollock gave up. He walked away, shaking his head in frustration. It was an episode that was his match in microcosm.
It was a bad day to be England’s new hero. It was a bad day to be England’s future. This Six Nations clash against an Ireland side that was supposed to be crumbling had been hyped as Pollock’s graduation party but the charisma of showmen like him ebbs away on chastening afternoons like this.
Flash and brash never looks good in the face of an unexpected drubbing. Cocky and loud never looks good when you are part of a performance that was, in turns, shabby, shoddy, ragged and supine. The thing with talking the talk, as Pollock does, is that it never looks good if you can’t walk the walk.
Pollock’s first start was supposed to confirm his place in England’s brave new world as they built towards a proper tilt at winning the World Cup next year. Instead, it confirmed his place in a team that is going backwards fast. England looked like a team that has drunk one pint too many of its own publicity. Let’s face it: this was a humiliation for Steve Borthwick‘s team.
Instead of Henry Pollock’s first start marking the start of a promising new era, it cemented his place in a team that is going backwards
Pollock will be back, stronger and better, but his side have plenty of work to do
It is fine being hailed as a pantomime villain and ‘wonderfully different’ when you change a game. But it looks like so many empty boasts when you are a powerless part of a team falling to a record home defeat by Ireland and slipping to fourth place in a competition you were tipped to win before it started.
Pride came before the fall. The build-up to this Twickenham clash had been dominated by breathless excitement about Pollock’s first start. It even overshadowed the tributes to England skipper Maro Itoje, who became only the ninth England player to make 100 appearances for his country.
ITV, in common with the rest of the English media, devoted a large chunk of its pre-match coverage to analysis of Pollock’s game and an interview with the man himself. When England lined up for the national anthem, the camera lingered lovingly on the Northampton Saints flanker. The fans cheered his name the loudest when it was read out before kick-off.
But things went downhill from there for England’s No8. It was not that he was to blame for this defeat, even if he was largely ineffectual. If it is a consolation, at least he was not as dire on a dispiriting day as George Ford, who stunk the place out. It was just that Pollock, like his team-mates, was overwhelmed by the opposition.
He was outplayed by his opposite number Caelan Doris, who had a stunning game. The same would apply to almost all England’s players, who were almost all outplayed by their opposite numbers. It is just that when you have been hyped as a generational talent before a game, the fall is more precipitous.
Things got worse for Pollock after half-time. England had scored a try just before the interval, which had given them a sliver of a hope of a fightback from 22-7 down but they started the second half looking flat and bedraggled.
The half was only two minutes old when Pollock was yellow carded for failing to roll away, as Ireland pressed for another try, and sent to the sin-bin. Almost immediately, Dan Sheehan went over from close range for the try that extinguished any fading dream of an England recovery. Pollock had to sit and watch.
He fought to the end. His attitude and his durability cannot be questioned. He was generous to his opponents in defeat and he took the time, even in his disappointment, to sign autographs and have his picture taken with some of his legions of fans in the crowd after the final whistle.
Pollock will be back, stronger and better. As World Cup winner Matt Dawson observed during the game, the young man ‘has all the pizzazz’. It was just that on Saturday afternoon, all Pollock could do was tilt at shadows. Ireland had established a monopoly on pizzazz.