England legend's 'stop messing about' plea as Henry Pollock drops 'Hey Jude celebration' during demolition job

Two England stars, one iconic celebration. For Jude Bellingham at the World Cup in Miami, read Henry Pollock in Liverpool.

At the home of Everton Football Club, Pollock stood, arms outstretched, à la Jude, after his hat-trick of tries condemned Fiji to a 73-8 defeat, their biggest in the fixture.

Hours later, Bellingham reclaimed his pose, scoring twice to bring England from behind to beat Norway in extra time and book a semi-final against Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

There is no argument over which is the more telling contribution, given that it was the nation’s biggest football match since the Euros final two years ago, whereas England’s rugby team were not required to get out of second gear.

But seeing Pollock mark a stunning cameo with the ‘Hey Jude’ celebration in the city The Beatles called home, makes it a fitting time to ask how much longer he must remain a peripheral figure.

Pollock is 21, the same age Bellingham was when powering England to within 90 minutes of European Championship glory in 2024. Yet in 12 caps, he has only one start.

While Bellingham shone for 111 minutes in the searing Floridian heat, Pollock was given only half an hour off the bench, entering the fray with the contest already decided: England up 35-8 and Fiji a man down.

His impact was nonetheless impressive. Three times he beat the opposition for sheer pace. A team down to 14 men, but still. There is serious gas in that Fiji side.

“I don’t know what we are waiting for,” Chris Ashton, the former England wing, said in commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live. “Stop messing about and put him in. He has to start next week.”

“This kid is box office”

Those wishing us to believe Pollock is more style than substance have long gone quiet. Over the last two months he has emphatically walked the talk. On both sides of the ball, he has made a difference.

In the Premiership play-offs, the Northampton back row turned in a tour de force to beat Leicester in the semi-final and was player of the match the following week against Exeter as Saints were crowned champions.

“He really is the real deal,” ex-England scrum-half Danny Care said on ITV. “This kid is box office.”

Yet while South Africa and France reap the benefits of having blooded Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Louis Bielle-Biarrey respectively at young ages, England tread warily and struggle to arrest what has been an alarming slump.

Saturday’s win was their first in six games dating back to February. Given the last England coach to lose six in a row was fired, it is not hard to imagine Steve Borthwick’s relief today.

That England scored 11 tries and came up with enough storylines to fill a library will both please and frustrate the head coach.

Aside from Pollock’s 25-minute hat-trick, there was Benhard Janse van Rensburg, the South African who grew up dreaming of playing in green and gold, needing just 218 seconds to mark his England debut with a try.

Noah Caluori went one better when following the Bristol centre off the bench to make one try and score another with his first two touches in Test rugby.

How Borthwick could have done with one or two of those headlines in the Six Nations; against Scotland, Ireland or Italy to slow or even prevent his side’s slide into ignominy.

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A “lose-lose” game

Fiji were so poor England were in no need of star dust. They would have won if their only weapon had been the boot of the exceptional Fin Smith.

This was what captain Jamie George meant when he spoke in the build-up of a “lose-lose” game for England: the sense that nothing his team did would be considered good enough.

We should not dismiss the achievement of sticking a record score on a nation ranked above Wales and Italy in the rankings. The ruthless way in which England targeted the scrum; the concentration required to deny Fiji’s usually brilliant backs any opportunity to perform.

Last time they met, eight months ago, Fiji trailed by a single point at the midpoint. The time before that, in Marseille in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, the scores were level inside the final quarter.

Before that was Twickenham, August 2023, and three second-half tries to beat England for the first time and inflict on the men in white a first loss by a side outside of the Six Nations and Rugby Championship.

So, some respect is due for this demolition job. But it comes with an almighty caveat. Fiji were dreadful. Even with 15 on the field they were not at the races. And they had a full compliment for only 30 minutes.

The measure of this England performance will be next week in Santiago del Estero when Borthwick’s men face Argentina in their third Nations Championship match.

If they play with confidence, cohesion and intensity, it will mark a step-up from their limp showing in South Africa on the tournament’s opening weekend.

They will be able to point to Fiji as the match in which they turned a corner, injected much-needed momentum and belief into the group.

Only then will we have an accurate gauge of how good England’s scrum and maul actually was at Bramley-Moore Dock. Of whether Van Rensburg, Caluori and Seb Atkinson are as suited to this level as they appeared on the banks of the Mersey.

Many will hope it brings an answer, too, to the big question. The one about Pollock and whether he can do it over 80 minutes. Few doubt he is up to the task. But first he needs to be afforded the opportunity.

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