{"id":575832,"date":"2026-03-31T07:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575832\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:25:20","slug":"eddie-hearn-reveals-matchrooms-masterplan-to-revolutionise-rugby-youre-going-to-get-bored-of-seeing-henry-pollock-everywhere-we-need-him-on-every-chat-show-the-moment-i-saw-him-i-knew-he-was-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575832\/","title":{"rendered":"EDDIE HEARN reveals Matchroom’s masterplan to revolutionise rugby: ‘You’re going to get bored of seeing Henry Pollock everywhere, we need him on every chat show… the moment I saw him I knew he was a superstar’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, at Matchroom\u2019s 18-acre mansion in Brentwood, Eddie Hearn<\/a> challenged Henry Pollock to a competition in the gym.<\/p>\n

\u2018We were doing bench presses and I said, \u201cCome on, I want to see this strength\u201d,\u2019 Hearn tells Daily Mail Sport.<\/p>\n

\u2018He rocked up and was pumping 120kg on the bar like it was nothing at all. I was like, \u201cYou\u2019re actually a freak!\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

On the same afternoon, the tycoon boxing promoter signed up Pollock to his agency.<\/p>\n

Pollock, 21, is one of the brightest young talents in the game and he is the first rugby player to join Hearn\u2019s growing stable that includes heavyweight fighter Anthony Joshua<\/a> and MMA star Tom Aspinall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pollock has popped up everywhere over the last couple of months and I thought, \u201cWho is this kid? I like him”,\u2019 explains Hearn. \u2018I\u2019d seen the celebration and the images of him licking his lips during the haka.<\/p>\n

\"Henry <\/p>\n

Henry Pollock, 21, is one of the brightest young talents in rugby and the first player to join Eddie Hearn\u2019s growing Matchroom stable<\/p>\n

\"\u2018The <\/p>\n

\u2018The kid is golden,’ says Hearn. ‘You\u2019ve just got to roll him out and let everybody fall in love with him’<\/p>\n

\u2018My world is dealing with people in boxing who have come from underprivileged societies, kids with huge chips on their shoulder, problems growing up, been to prison, been in gangs and boxing has turned their life around.<\/p>\n

\u2018In the rugby world, a lot of those players aren\u2019t underprivileged. Henry went to Stowe School where I used to play cricket for Essex. It\u2019s definitely not underprivileged but it doesn\u2019t matter what your background is as long as you have the right fundamentals for life.<\/p>\n

\u2018I played rugby at a very low level and it has so many of the same fundamentals of boxing. Discipline, respect, physicality, manners, teamwork. Forget the backgrounds, it\u2019s the same educator. It\u2019s a much better educator than sitting in a classroom learning about neutrons and protons.<\/p>\n

\u2018As soon as Henry came in last week, I thought, \u201cI love this kid\u201d. A young kid with bundles of talent, big balls on him and a personality to light up the room.<\/p>\n

\u2018I can see hundreds of thousands of kids with a rugby ball under their arm, with a running commentary pretending they\u2019re Henry Pollock.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pollock is one of the most talked-about figures in rugby, known for his peroxide hair, eccentric try celebrations and supreme talent.<\/p>\n

Matchroom will take charge of his commercial dealings, while his rugby operations will continue to be managed by Stellar, whom Hearn previously worked for as a golf agent.<\/p>\n

Hearn\u2019s aim is to transform Pollock into a mainstream celebrity by multiplying his visibility over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"'I <\/p>\n

‘I thought, \u201cWho is this kid? I like him”,\u2019 explains Hearn. \u2018I\u2019d seen the celebration and the images of him licking his lips during the haka’<\/p>\n

\"Hearn\u2019s <\/p>\n

Hearn\u2019s aim is to transform Pollock into a mainstream celebrity by multiplying his visibility over the coming weeks<\/p>\n

\u2018Firstly, rugby is paramount,\u2019 says Hearn. \u2018What I can\u2019t do is tell the world he\u2019s a superstar, bring him into this mainstream audience and all of a sudden he starts playing poorly and gets dropped by England. I told him, \u201cYou\u2019re a superstar because you\u2018re a great player\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018What we have to do now is keep growing the brand and profile of Henry Pollock. Over the next three or four weeks, you are probably going to get quite bored of seeing Henry Pollock everywhere. We need him on every mainstream chat show, every major sports outlet.<\/p>\n

\u2018The stuff he did with Barcelona the other week was hugely powerful. It\u2019s seeing him out on the F1 grid walking with Lewis Hamilton, sitting down with Graham Norton or Jonathan Ross on the big sofa on BBC One.<\/p>\n

\u2018The kid is golden. You\u2019ve just got to roll him out and let everybody fall in love with him. As I explained to him, there will also be people who don\u2019t fall in love with him. That comes with the world and he\u2019s well equipped for that. When you\u2019re a superstar, you\u2019re just ready for all that stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the boxing world, Hearn is the master of selling fights. He has allowed rivalries and feuds to develop between fighters, creating gripping narratives before the fighters step into the ring.<\/p>\n

Fighters sit side by side in press conferences, where emotions often boil over. Rugby has a more conservative attitude and Hearn believes there is untapped potential for story-telling.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018I <\/p>\n

\u2018I want to build rivalries (in rugby),’ adds Hearn. ‘There are players that won\u2019t like each other’<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to build rivalries. There are players that won\u2019t like each other. I\u2019m not going to start doing face-offs before the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘There was a load of beef between Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan and another player recently and I told the snooker lads to do a press conference with them both. They were like, \u201cWhat, individually?\u201d No, together. You do that, you drive viewership, you create more media, you put more bums on seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘That\u2019s not really my job here but I look at Red Bull (at Newcastle) and other money men coming into the sport and they are going to do that job for you. There\u2019s no way Red Bull will come in and just follow the old traditional code of rugby. They\u2019re going to want to monetise it and drive hype. Where are the rivalries? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u2018All you\u2019ve got to do is be a storyteller and let things unfold naturally and you build the hype around that. I\u2019m sure there will be someone playing for the Springboks in July who goes, \u201cYou know that Pollock\u2026 what a prat he is. I can\u2019t wait for the game, I\u2019m going to nail him in the first five minutes\u201d. We\u2019re not looking to bastardise it. This is real. It\u2019s not made up.<\/p>\n

\u2018I would be bringing the teams together and creating those rivalries because it\u2019s going to make people watch. It\u2019s not rocket science. We want to keep it respectful \u2013 rugby is different in that respect \u2013 but you need to explain what it means to people. What grabbed me at the Wales-Italy game was looking around during the national anthem and seeing people in tears. I was like \u201cWow, this is unbelievably powerful\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

Time will tell if Hearn becomes a mediator in rugby\u2019s long-running discussions with the Middle East. He has made Saudi Arabia the home of heavyweight boxing and he believes the money men will have a huge appetite for his new client.<\/p>\n

\u2018Saudi is going to look at all sports that are hot and current. They would definitely look at someone like Pollock and be engaged,\u2019 Hearn adds. \u2018They\u2019re very smart people. They see trends, they see numbers and, let\u2019s be honest, what individual in rugby is creating numbers like Pollock? No one. Others are miles off the pace so he\u2019ll be getting their attention.<\/p>\n

\"Hearn <\/p>\n

Hearn expects Pollock to be making more money from his off-field activities than his day job within the next six to 12 months<\/p>\n

\u2018If there are financial opportunities for players in the Middle East, every other sport is going there, so why shouldn\u2019t rugby? Is the game getting their attention? They like to do things that are a little bit differently around the structure of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Whether that\u2019s something the RFU will look and go \u201cAbsolutely not\u201d I don\u2019t know. My job is to build the commercial brand and revenue of Henry Pollock. Another word for that is money.<\/p>\n

\u2018Within six to 12 months, Henry Pollock will be making more off the field than he\u2019s making on it. That will change because I\u2019m aware of his contracts and that needs to change. I\u2019m not moaning about them and he\u2019s not moaning about them but I know the value of him and that will change in due course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The moment I saw him, I thought this kid is a superstar. This kid could single-handedly change rugby.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, at Matchroom\u2019s 18-acre mansion in Brentwood, Eddie Hearn challenged Henry Pollock to a competition in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,100,12909,6660,103300,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-575832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-england-rugby","13":"tag-rugbyunion","14":"tag-six-nations","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575832","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=575832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}