Henry Pollock: I told him - ‘second half, buddy, set your alarm for that’

Henry Pollock primed his Hong Kong-based brother to set his alarm in time to watch his influential second-half cameo as England overcame Australia 25-7 at Allianz Stadium.

Pollock confirmed his status as one of the game’s most exciting talents by conjuring the brilliant 59th minute try that placed England in control of the autumn opener, also registering his third Test try in two replacement appearances.

Sporting the peroxide blonde hair style that he says was inspired by Chelsea winger Garnacho, the 20-year-old back row grabbed the headlines as part of Steve Borthwick’s bomb squad that turned the tide against the Wallabies.

And he backed himself to deliver at Twickenham by urging his brother Angus to tune in for his pivotal touch down.

“My brother’s abroad in Hong Kong right now. I told him – ‘second half, buddy, set your alarm for that’,” Pollock said.

Fixture

Internationals

England

38 - 18

Full-time

Fiji

All Stats and Data

“I messaged him to see if he had woken up for the game or if he was still in bed. Hearing from him and my family is massively important to me.”

When asked about the excitement that greeted his involvement at Twickenham, Pollock said: “I guess it comes with playing and comes with what I bring.

“I don’t think too much into it, but we’re always playing to get the fans on our side and we definitely did that against Australia.

“There’s definitely more to come from us. We’re not just a team that can kick the ball and get it back. We want to be a team that can do everything and we’re constantly working on that.

“You saw the leadership brought by George Ford and how composed he was and Tom Roebuck was just outstanding in the air.”

The autumn continues with Fiji’s visit to Twickenham on Saturday and England appear to avoided any injury complications ahead of the second of their four fixtures this autumn.

Freddie Steward picked up a hand injury against Australia but while Leicester full-back will miss training on Monday, he is expected to be ready to face the Islanders.

England posted their eighth successive victory by dispatching the Wallabies and are unbeaten since falling to Ireland in Dublin at the start of the Six Nations, but fly-half Ford cautions against getting carried away.

“We need to keep our feet on the ground. It’s only one win, there’s loads we can get better at today and we know how dangerous Fiji are going to be next week,” the Test centurion said.

“If you look back to last autumn we did lose a few games, but for me I’m still feeling the same now.

“This was a good win, a solid win, but it’s just a start, we can’t look any further than what we’ve got next weekend.

“When you come off the field you’re obviously happy you won, but you’re a little bit unsatisfied with aspects.”