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<\/p>\nIt was impossible to ignore Henry Pollock after he burst on to the scene last year. There was the try from the halfway line where he chipped ahead and outpaced the opposing full back. There were outside breaks that carved open midfield defences. There was the time he stooped to his bootlaces to pick up a loose ball at pace before sidestepping his way over the line. Here was a flanker doing things that flankers are not supposed to do.<\/p>\n
For good measure, he demonstrated a world-class ability to wind up opponents, ripping off scrum caps, grabbing their socks, celebrating his tries outlandlishly in their faces. Take your eyes off him if you can. And just in case anyone wasn\u2019t paying attention, this season he has dyed his hair peroxide blond. <\/p>\n
The fascination of Pollock\u2019s second season in the spotlight, and a first full Six Nations, lies much more in his ability to perform the tasks that do not attract quite so much attention: the split-second decision-making at the breakdown, the task of impeding the opposition without conceding penalties, the need to win physical confrontations time and again. The nitty-gritty, in short, that flankers are supposed to do. As Peter Winterbottom, the former England and Lions openside flanker, put it, has he got it in him to \u201creally dog it out in a tough game\u201d?<\/p>\n
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Pollock has shown a world-class ability to wind up opponents in his short career<\/p>\n
SHAUN BOTTERILL\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
No coach worth their salt would attempt to rein in the 21-year-old\u2019s instinctive flair, because he has the potential to turn any game, and has proved as much for Northampton Saints and England. But the next step in Pollock\u2019s fledgling career is to prove to Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, that he is worthy of a starting place in the England back row. <\/p>\n
For all his meteoric rise over the past year, he has yet to start a Test match. All five of his England caps have come from the bench and he was frustrated to miss out on the matchday squads with the British & Irish Lions against Australia last summer. <\/p>\n
\u201cHenry is still young, but he\u2019s desperate to put his name down as a starter for England,\u201d Phil Dowson, the Northampton director of rugby, says. \u201cHe\u2019ll get the right feedback from Steve as to what he needs to do to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, Pollock has been given a clear role by Borthwick, sent into the fray with roughly half an hour remaining to wreak havoc. The minutes played in his five appearances for England are 32, 31, 27, 25 and 30. In the autumn internationals, he was part of an England bench that became a potent weapon during the second half of matches. <\/p>\n
His value as a high-octane impact sub is clear to see, but he now wishes to show that he can be more than a bench man, as Sam Warburton wrote in The Times after the Lions tour. \u201cI just hope he doesn\u2019t fall victim too much to what Justin Tipuric suffered with Wales,\u201d Warburton said, \u201cwhere for the first part of his career he was considered a good bench player because of his impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
The path towards a starting spot for Pollock will depend, in part, on how Borthwick deploys his bench. For the Tests against Australia, New Zealand and Argentina in the autumn, he used the same starting back row \u2014 Guy Pepper at No6, Sam Underhill at No7 and Ben Earl at No8 \u2014 with Pollock and Tom Curry coming off the bench. But it will also depend on Pollock honing those less glamorous elements of the flanker\u2019s craft to a point where Borthwick is persuaded to play him for more than just that final half an hour.<\/p>\n
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Pollock crosses to score a try against Wales in last year\u2019s Six Nations but now it\u2019s about honing the less glamorous elements of the flanker\u2019s craft<\/p>\n
ADRIAN DENNIS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nuts and bolts are all things that Henry can do. He\u2019s more than capable at the set piece, at the breakdown he\u2019s very good and his jackalling is a huge strength,\u201d Dowson says. \u201cSome of the feedback from Steve and Andy Farrell [the Lions head coach] is for him to really value those skills and to have consistency around them. I think any young player would be given that feedback, in terms of how he does the small things and those bits adding up to the big things. But there\u2019s nothing really missing from his game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Developing consistency in the fundamentals of his craft is something that will, inevitably, come with time. Pollock only turned 21 last week and, although he has packed so much into the past year, he has still played an aggregate of only 145 minutes in an England shirt. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs always when you go up a level, it\u2019s about the minutiae of your decision-making,\u201d Dowson says. \u201cBecause he\u2019s so good over the ball, he doesn\u2019t need to duck his head into every breakdown. He has to be choosy about which ones he attacks. <\/p>\n
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