{"id":323279,"date":"2025-12-02T18:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T18:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/323279\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T18:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T18:29:10","slug":"phil-dowson-expresses-his-one-big-concern-over-henry-pollock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/323279\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Dowson expresses his one big concern over Henry Pollock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite having retired nearly a decade ago, Northampton<\/a> Director of Rugby Phil Dowson<\/a> is still able to enjoy a \u2018relatable\u2019 relationship with his players. At Franklin\u2019s Gardens there isn\u2019t a \u2018them and us\u2019 divide between the coaching staff and the playing group. Everyone takes their work seriously, they just don\u2019t take themselves too seriously.<\/p>\n

For a fun-loving character like Henry Pollock<\/a>, it is just the sort of environment that allows him to thrive, and the Lions<\/a> bolter is playing with a smile on his face and loving life at the moment. Dowson has embraced the showmanship and allowed the blonde bombshell flanker to be his unique self. However, Dowson does worry that the 20-year-old could one day become a victim of the British media\u2019s mentality of building someone up only to then knock them down.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest concern is that he gets burnt and then he retracts and he is not being himself. That would be my biggest issue \u2013 that he says something or does something that people really don\u2019t like and the heat becomes a bit more visceral, a bit more personal,\u201d said Dowson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a bright lad, he\u2019s not stupid, and he is very driven to get to where he is at the moment. So again, it\u2019s a case of that lecture thing, it\u2019s not going to be somebody sitting down and wagging a finger at him, and saying, \u2018don\u2019t do this.\u2019 But he\u2019s more than willing to take advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the momnent he is just running around playing rugby and having fun and I don\u2019t need to tell him how to do that. My concern is that the media crushes him at some point and he goes into his shell, which would be sad because he is good for the game and he is what the game needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dowson, 44, isn\u2019t one to take a dictatorial approach \u2013 \u201cwe\u2019re not preaching\u201d \u2013 but he did offer some advice to England\u2019s rising young star about the importance of striking the right balance between on and off-field matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets invited to do a lot of stuff because he is the man of the moment and he\u2019s charismatic and he is obviously very talented. And I just said, you have to be really picky because if you try and be all things to everybody, you end up focusing more on the off-field stuff than the on-field stuff, and the on-field stuff is the foundation of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I just said, about brands, attach yourself to names that are top level, make sure you are not cheapening that name by doing everything, be a little more choosy. So he knocked on my door and came in and said, I\u2019ve got a photoshoot with Burberry\u2019. I said, \u2018yeah, that\u2019s pretty good man, you should probably do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former England<\/a> back-rower Dowson led Saints to the 2024 Premiership title, as well as a Champions Cup final \u2013 proof that success can be achieved by doing things the right way with humanity at the core of the club\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

Life as a Premiership DoR comes with heaps of pressure, though, and he, too, recognises the importance of enjoying what you do, as well as keeping things in perspective.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Coaching Culture YouTube show<\/a> fronted by former Leicester<\/a> player Ben Herring, Dowson gave a personal insight into how he came to appreciate how rugby is not the be-all and end-all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always have a saying that a sense of humour goes a long way. Rugby is pretty mental, 30 games a year, it\u2019s nuts really,\u201d said the former Newcastle, Saints and Worcester<\/a> player.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a loss, or a disappointment, it\u2019s important to make sure you have some context and some perspective and take a step back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my wife worked for the NHS during Covid, it was pretty healthy from my point of view because I would come back and say, \u2018we lost 10 lineouts\u2019, and she would say, \u2018two patients died today.\u2019 And you\u2019re like, \u2018well, we can get better at the lineout, so let\u2019s not worry too much.’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite having retired nearly a decade ago, Northampton Director of Rugby Phil Dowson is still able to enjoy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-323279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}