England eager to create more Henry Pollocks says RFU chief

England are intent on developing more superstars in the mould of Henry Pollock, according to Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney.

Even at just 21 years old Pollock is one of the highest profile players in the game and is represented by boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who has criticised the sport’s failure to market its best talent.

Sweeney has contacted Hearn and looks to the success of Australia’s NFL and AFL in creating household names as England and the Gallagher Prem move towards joining forces to broaden rugby’s appeal.

“If you go to minis and juniors, you see so many kids with Pollock headbands,” Sweeney said.

“We get challenged all the time on how we attract kids to the sport, how we keep it contemporary, how do we compete with some of those other sports? You see it in rugby league in Australia. Why can’t we function in that way?

“I do think it’s possible within the traditional culture of the sport. While Pollock’s clearly a very confident young guy, it shouldn’t all be on him in terms of breaking through.

“We could have a target of wanting eight potentially iconic players developed every single year.

“Now only one might make it through, but we want to develop eight players together who are world-class players and one of them every year becomes a marketing icon like the next Pollock.

“To do that we think we need to work much more closely with the Prem, so we see ourselves getting much more closely aligned.”

Explosive wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is seen by Sweeney as another current English player with the qualities to elevate awareness of rugby and the tackle-busting Exeter man starts against Australia at Allianz Stadium on Sunday, with Pollock featuring on the bench.

The RFU boss insists that success in creating stars is only possible through a deliberate and well-thought-out approach.

“Go back a few years to Nike and tennis,” Sweeney said. “Tennis was a pretty boring sport and they intentionally set up a theatre.

“They had Pete Sampras as the boring guy – I wouldn’t say hero or villain – and you had Andre Agassi as the rebel and it was the two of them against each other.

“You need to go out intentionally. You don’t just hope for these things to happen but instead you look for personalities and characters in the game and you work with them and develop them into particular individuals. It’s much more outward looking.

“Look at the NFL, look at how the other sports do it – it’s a much more proactive, aggressive way to market the sport.

“I don’t think rugby has been very good at that for a long time. We’re very good at talking to ourselves, but we’re not very good at talking externally.”