Henry Pollock has brought an end to his contract stand-off with Northampton, saying it was ultimately “a very easy decision” to sign an extension with the defending Prem champions.<\/p>\n
“I am very, very happy to sign here,” Pollock told BBC Radio Northampton.<\/a><\/p>\n “I have been here my whole career so it made sense for me to stay on the journey with such a young group of players, who are so ambitious.<\/p>\n “It was a very easy decision in the end.”<\/p>\n The 21-year-old forward’s new terms tie him to Northampton until the summer of 2028, raising the prospect of talks restarting in around a year’s time.<\/p>\n Pollock, whose profile has exploded over the past two seasons after appearing for England and the British and Irish Lions, had been talked up as a “seven-figure player” during negotiations by his advisor Eddie Hearn.<\/a><\/p>\n However, the boxing promoter’s valuation was never likely to be met at Northampton or elsewhere in the Prem, given Saints’ star-studded line-up, the league’s \u00a36.4m squad salary cap and rules over players moving between clubs.<\/p>\n The exact level of Pollock’s pay increase is unclear. While some sources have valued his new contract at \u00a3400,000 a year, others involved in the deal say the figure is higher.<\/p>\n His salary is certainly short of Scotland playmaker Finn Russell, who, as Bath’s marquee player, is on the league’s most lucrative package, worth about \u00a31m a year.<\/p>\n Pollock’s pay puts him well ahead of most of his contemporaries in the Prem, however.<\/p>\n His new deal is comfortably ahead of the average annual salary in the league (\u00a3191,000), the average earned by someone in his 20-22 age bracket (\u00a3106,000) and with his level of international experience (\u00a3224,000), as revealed by the latest league payroll data, covering the 2024-25 campaign., external<\/a><\/p>\n Only 4% of Prem players that season were paid in excess of \u00a3400,000 a year.<\/p>\n