{"id":420678,"date":"2026-01-18T06:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T06:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420678\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T06:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T06:27:07","slug":"champions-cup-scarlets-cannot-be-distracted-by-pollock-in-northampton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420678\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions Cup: Scarlets cannot be distracted by Pollock in Northampton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pollock, who scored two tries on his England debut against Wales in Cardiff last year, will lead the charge as Saints hunt a home tie in the last 16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The back-row forward is in his second season as a professional but has already become one of the game&#8217;s most recognisable figures and a pantomime villain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Lions tourist responded to jeers of the Bordeaux crowd last weekend with a double &#8211; the first a remarkable chip, chase and gather down the left wing &#8211; and Scarlets will be wary of his explosive carrying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, the Saints also boast a formidable matchday squad that includes England internationals Alex Mitchell, Tommy Freeman and Fraser Dingwall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There are 14 other guys on the pitch that you&#8217;ve got to worry about,&#8221; added Macleod.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If we went in with a mindset of worrying about one then we&#8217;re going to get lost along the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pollock, who scored two tries on his England debut against Wales in Cardiff last year, will lead the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-420678","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\/420678","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=420678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}