Henry Pollock addresses LA28 Olympic rumours head on

Henry Pollock has said that representing Great Britain Sevens at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is “definitely something I’m aspiring to do”.

The Northampton Saints and England back-row has been linked with a place in a prospective Great Britain squad alongside Marcus Smith, Tommy Freeman, Henry Arundell and Noah Caluori. RugbyPass reported in July that the quintet had been targeted with LA28 in mind.

Pollock’s immediate priority remains next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia, but, speaking during a Q&A on his YouTube channel, the 21-year-old made no secret of the appeal of following the path taken by Antoine Dupont, who switched his focus to sevens before helping France win Olympic gold on home soil in Paris in 2024.

There is, however, no guarantee Pollock will even have an Olympic place to pursue. Great Britain’s men were relegated from the main SVNS circuit in Bordeaux earlier this year and will compete in SVNS 2 this season rather than the eight-team top tier.

The qualification process begins this season, with four places available through the 2027 SVNS World Championship standings, six through regional qualification and the final spot through a repechage in June 2028. The United States qualify automatically as hosts.

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10 Oct 26

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“Obviously we’ve got the World Cup next year, so that’s going to be big. Hopefully we do really well in that tournament,” Pollock said.

“After that, see how it goes, see how my career goes and just keep enjoying my rugby. That’s the main thing for me, I love playing this game, I love playing this sport.

When asked about a potential switch to sevens, he said: “Hopefully, I don’t know yet how it will work. But it’s definitely something I want to do in my career.

“Seeing what Antoine Dupont did in the last Olympics, it’s definitely given me some sort of motivation to play, but I just need to take it step by step and hopefully it all fits in place and it naturally happens.

“But definitely it’s something I’m aspiring to do.”