Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus rates rising England star Henry Pollock highly and says behind all the hype is a serious rugby player.
Pollock has become one of the most talked-about figures in northern hemisphere rugby, with the brash 21-year-old’s confidence and on-field antics dividing opinion.
“Pollock is a bit like Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu,” said Erasmus on Tuesday. “People create a lot of hype around a player and sometimes they don’t think about whether the player even wants that attention.
“What counts is what they do on the field, and he certainly does his job on the field. And that’s something we have to contain.
“His personality and how he does things are up to him and the England squad. If I was coaching him, I’d only look at his output, and his output is awesome.”
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The Springboks will come face to face with pantomime villain Pollock in their Nations Championship opener against England at Ellis Park next Saturday.
“It’s a young but experienced squad,” Erasmus said. “The average age is around 27 and the average number of Test caps is about 32, so there’s a good balance.
“There’s a few old names there who are really experienced, like Jamie George, and some guys in their 30s, maybe 33 or 35.”
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He highlighted the influence of players from Premiership finalists the Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers.
“If you look at their squad, the No 9 and 10 will be from Northampton. There’ll be four, five guys from Leicester, five or six guys from Northampton. I’m sure there’ll be a couple from Sale.”
The Bok coach said it was hard to predict what game plan England would deploy at Ellis Park.
“They always change their structures and try to evolve, like all of us. We may think we more or less know what they’re going to do, but then you get to the day and it is something totally different.”
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Erasmus did add that with the strong Northampton influence “there’ll definitely be a hell of a running threat and good aerial contest”.
He added: “There are a few guys coming through the Premiership who are really good in the air, which is something we were really good in last year, so I think that’s going to be a massive battle.”
Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
The post Rassie talks up ‘awesome’ Pollock appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus rates rising England star Henry Pollock highly and says behind all the hype is a serious rugby player.
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