{"id":791680,"date":"2026-10-04T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T12:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791680\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T12:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T12:46:10","slug":"trying-to-style-henry-pollock-into-a-rugby-icon-is-missing-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791680\/","title":{"rendered":"Trying to style Henry Pollock into a rugby icon is missing something"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If this is where rugby is going, it might be a journey it takes without me.<\/p>\n

Rugby, to me, is the ultimate team game. Tall or short, big or small, there\u2019s always been a place for you.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about individuals, but the collective. If you\u2019re modest, hardworking and brave you\u2019ll earn the respect of everyone.<\/p>\n

No-one\u2019s bigger than the team, no-one says or does stupid things that put a target on people\u2019s heads. You talk a small game, but play a big one.<\/p>\n

\"Video\"Video<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t normally stoop to writing about Henry Pollock. The Northampton<\/a> flanker isn\u2019t worth my time or anyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a useful player, who\u2019s now getting his tyres pumped up by a boxing promoter.<\/p>\n

Pollock\u2019s not fit to lace Richie McCaw\u2019s boots, who is the epitome of everything we used to want and value in a rugby player.<\/p>\n

But, frankly, I was appalled when I saw Pollock described this week as \u201cthe new Taylor Swift of his generation.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to shock anyone but, beyond having heard the name and probably being able to identify Swift in a police line-up, I know nothing and care nothing about her. If she has an audience, I\u2019m not part of it.<\/p>\n

New Zealand<\/a> rugby players have stuck their head above the parapet occasionally and, when they do, I cringe. TJ Perenara, Rieko Ioane and Ardie Savea would be three I immediately think of off the top of my head.<\/p>\n

Just play the game, champ, and don\u2019t make a spectacle of yourself.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not where we\u2019re going here. No, despite the lack of substance, we\u2019re going to try and style Pollock into becoming a rugby icon.<\/p>\n

Jonah Lomu was pretty big in my day. Jonny Wilkinson too, particularly in England. I doubt too many kiwi kids had posters of him on the wall.<\/p>\n

The thing is, those men generated attention and adulation beyond their teams because of the scale of their performances. They were match winners who became marketable on the back of their deeds.<\/p>\n

If this hubbub around Pollock is anything to go by, we\u2019re now looking to promote people into relevance regardless of whether they\u2019ve ever done anything.<\/p>\n

I accept that rugby has challenges. No, that\u2019s not quite right. Rugby has one challenge: it pays players far too much and is therefore on an eternal search for more eyeballs and more cash in an attempt to break even.<\/p>\n

Not to make money, mind. Just to keep from going bust.<\/p>\n

The Lomu thing was a bit of a conundrum for New Zealand 30 years ago. Generations of All Black fans had grown up on men such as Colin Meads, Don Clarke and Sean Fitzpatrick and, while they were universally admired and respected, you wouldn\u2019t call them celebrities.<\/p>\n

Lomu was different. His talent and impact upon matches was so outsized that allowances were made for him within the team environment and the public simply couldn\u2019t get enough of him.<\/p>\n

He transcended the collective in a way that a host of genuinely great All Blacks<\/a> didn\u2019t before or since.<\/p>\n

Daniel Carter has tried to make a public figure of himself in retirement, but he was always one of the boys in his playing days.<\/p>\n

The fabric of rugby matters to me. I shake my head when I\u2019m told we\u2019re in the entertainment business now and that we have to connect with younger folk through social media channels rather than performances on the paddock.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also chafed against the idea that the All Blacks are a brand and not a team.<\/p>\n

But for all the faults in that thinking and the fact it puts the cart before the horse, it\u2019s still about the collective.<\/p>\n

This Pollock stuff is about Pollock. It\u2019s not about Northampton or England. It\u2019s not even about rugby.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about a promoter deciding, seemingly on a whim, that this is a person of substance that we\u2019re going to be told is transformational so many times that we eventually believe it.<\/p>\n

Hell, I\u2019m disappointed in myself for giving the whole charade oxygen. But I do so because it should be said that this is not what rugby\u2019s ever been about or ever should be.<\/p>\n

Teams and players have always been held in high esteem because of their performances, not their haircuts. Yes, the game has to try and pay for itself but not by conning the public.<\/p>\n

For all the fleeting fans you attract for five minutes, just as many of your traditional audience turn away in disgust.<\/p>\n

Players have come and gone in my lifetime, but my love of the game never has. That\u2019s in large part because no-one\u2019s ever bigger than it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If this is where rugby is going, it might be a journey it takes without me. Rugby, to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791680","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=791680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}