{"id":590610,"date":"2026-05-18T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590610\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:14:13","slug":"prem-rugby-team-of-the-week-pollock-lets-rugby-do-the-talking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590610\/","title":{"rendered":"PREM Rugby Team of the Week: Pollock ‘lets rugby do the talking’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

Following the conclusion of round 16 of the 2025\/26 PREM Rugby season, here is the latest Planet Rugby Team of the Week.<\/p>\n

There were big wins for Northampton Saints, Bath, Harlequins, Saracens and Leicester Tigers this weekend, as the races for both the play-offs and the final Investec Champions Cup spot take another turn.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, here is who made our\u00a0PREM<\/a> XV!<\/p>\n

PREM Rugby Team of the Week<\/p>\n

15 George Furbank (Northampton Saints): He\u2019s hitting his form at just the right time if he wants to get back into the England starting XV, with Furbank again at the peak of his powers against Bristol Bears. Always seemed to make a positive impact on proceedings, be it ball-in-hand with 13 carries for 71 metres or with his playmaking in backfield, and managed to notch an assist and a try for his efforts.\u00a0Freddie Steward\u00a0also caught the eye again for Leicester.<\/p>\n

14 George Hendy (Northampton Saints):\u00a0It seems it doesn\u2019t matter where you play him, Hendy will make a difference. The England hopeful was again in glorious touch for Northampton in their thumping win over Bristol, getting a tidy haul of four tries alongside 125 metres from 11 carries all while making two linebreaks and beating three defenders.\u00a0Tommy Freeman\u00a0was also in very good form for the Saints, and can feel hard done by to miss out here.<\/p>\n

13 Will Wand (Leicester Tigers):\u00a0Continues to impress in this Tigers midfield, and he was again on song in their win over Sale Sharks. Added some really nice directness to their attack at the CorpAcq, which quickly became a point of difference for Leicester and allowed him to notch a healthy stats sheet of seven defenders beaten and 66 metres from 10 carries alongside a try. Luke Northmore\u00a0had the shirt until Sunday, after a strong outing against Exeter.<\/p>\n

Comment: England remain the standard bearers after fifth successive Six Nations Grand Slam and Ellie Kildunne\u2019s chilling warning suggests there is more to come<\/a><\/p>\n

12 Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints):\u00a0Potentially flies under the radar in this Saints backline, but he\u2019s a wonderful player to watch when he plays like this. Oozed class with every touch of the ball, chipping in well ball-in-hand with two scores alongside 40 metres from nine carries, all while injecting serious intent and fizz into their attack with his deft playmaking.\u00a0Max Ojomoh\u00a0went pretty well for Bath, as he continues to push his case for England selection.<\/p>\n

11 Henry Arundell (Bath): Arundell\u2019s four-try haul again stole headlines for Bath in their win over Newcastle, and sees him beat Rotimi Segun\u00a0into this team as well. The electric winger was such a potent attacking threat at the Rec on Saturday, carving through the Red Bulls\u2019 defence like a knife through butter with 176 metres from his eight carries while also beating five defenders and making five linebreaks.<\/p>\n

10 Marcus Smith (Harlequins):\u00a0When Harlequins needed him most, he hit top form to drive them to an astonishing comeback victory. Had the Exeter defence on strings across the second-half as he powered the Londoners to victory, getting them playing into space at exactly the right time but also sitting back and pinning the Chiefs deep with some gorgeous kicks, and that commanding display is exactly what Steve Borthwick would want from him.\u00a0Finn Russell\u00a0played a big part in Bath\u2019s thumping win over Newcastle and deserves a mention.<\/p>\n

9\u00a0Archie McParland (Northampton Saints):\u00a0England\u2019s young scrum-half contingent are all going pretty well right now, but it seems McParland is the one setting the tone for that group right now. The Saints man was again sublime in their thumping win over Bristol, combining superbly well with Fin Smith and the aforementioned Hutchinson to get the attack purring all while offering his own threat around the ruck, resulting in 54 metres from nine carries and two tries.\u00a0Lucas Friday\u00a0caught the eye for Harlequins too.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

The forwards<\/p>\n

8 Tom Willis (Saracens):\u00a0You do start to run out of ways to describe Willis\u2019 form this season, with the number eight again dropping an absolute masterclass in the tight. Seemed to carry with genuine hatred at times, ending with 51 metres from his 19 hit-ups in the process, and once again got stuck into the defensive efforts with 14 tackles too. Alex Dombrandt was not far off, though.<\/p>\n

7 Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints):\u00a0Often in the headlines no matter what, but he let his rugby do all the talking on Friday night with an outright showstopper against Bristol. Pollock showed his all-court skills in a dominant display, making a game-high 16 tackles and 18 carries for 114 metres alongside two turnovers, two linebreaks and a try, and that played a huge role in powering the Saints to victory.\u00a0Ben Earl\u00a0and\u00a0Guy Pepper\u00a0were not far off this side.<\/p>\n

6 Josh Bayliss (Bath):\u00a0Another big outing from the Scotland international, who gets in ahead of Hanro Liebenburg and Theo McFarland in the process. Carted around superbly ball-in-hand on Saturday afternoon, ending with a healthy 98 metres from eight carries alongside a tally of three defenders beaten, while also chipping in well in defence with 12 tackles.<\/p>\n

Sale Sharks v Leicester Tigers: Five takeaways as \u2018magical\u2019 Wand seals PREM Rugby play-off spot but seven-try win bittersweet after Wallaby\u2019s injury<\/a><\/p>\n

5 Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers):\u00a0Alex Coles\u00a0can potentially feel hard done by after a good return against Bristol Bears, but Chessum just sneaked in ahead on Sunday afternoon. The England lock again seemed to have the bit between his teeth in Leicester\u2019s win over Sale, driving the Tigers pack well in the process and seeing him score a nice try along the way.<\/p>\n

4 Maro Itoje (Saracens):\u00a0Continued his rich form of late in Saracens\u2019 big win over Gloucester, as he gets in ahead of Ed Prowse\u00a0and\u00a0Zach Carr this week. Itoje was a rock of stability in defence all afternoon, notching 16 tackles and winning two turnovers, in an effort which nullified Gloucester\u2019s in-form pack at every turn.<\/p>\n

3 Thomas du Toit (Bath):\u00a0Bath are really going to miss him next season. While his attacking and try-scoring exploits often get the headlines, his defence did a lot of the talking this week with a strong 19 tackles to his name upon his departure, and stepped up to fill a void with a few lineout darts too.\u00a0Marcus Street\u00a0went well for Saracens.<\/p>\n

2 Sam Riley (Harlequins):\u00a0Has really stepped up to the plate in recent weeks, with the hooker again playing a key role in a big victory for Harlequins. Like last week, he offered a really strong threat ball-in-hand with 12 carries for 80 metres to his name across the afternoon, and backed that up in the set-piece too.\u00a0Jamie Blamire\u00a0and\u00a0Dan Frost\u00a0were not far off.<\/p>\n

1 Emmanuel Iyogun (Northampton Saints):\u00a0Another tidy outing from the loosehead, who edges out\u00a0Beno Obano\u00a0and\u00a0Nicky Smith\u00a0in the process. Nailed the ugly stuff across the park, making 14 tackles and four carries, in an effort which helped lay the foundations for his side\u2019s attacking brilliance.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \u2018His energy was incredible\u2019 \u2013 Tributes pour in as former Scotland and British & Irish Lions star passes away<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the conclusion of round 16 of the 2025\/26 PREM Rugby season, here is the latest Planet Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[79322,29207,79263,242,17990,61522,348,46723,2059,50,79323,21002,5903,32645,48492,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-590610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-bath","tag-bristol","tag-exeter-chiefs","tag-features","tag-gloucester","tag-harlequins","tag-home-page","tag-leicester-tigers","tag-newcastle","tag-news","tag-northampton-saints","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-sale-sharks","tag-saracens","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}