Henry Pollock's message to Wallabies around sledging on tour

British and Irish Lions rookie Henry Pollock has said he’s looking forward to the sledging that is likely coming his way as he looks forward to the tour of Australia.

The Lions take on Argentina at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Friday night, but thoughts are inevitably drifting to the tour proper on Australian soil. Being a sports-mad nation, and one known for brutal verbal exchanges on and off the field, it is fully expected that the Lions will face their fair share of sledging from the natives.

A brash player who wears his heart on his sleeve, Pollock says he will in fact relish the exchanges.

“I think England vs Australia is always a massive rivalry, in any sport. You look at the Ashes, it’s always fiery and heated. And I think in this Lions series, it’s definitely going to be that,” the back-row told The i Paper.

“So, yeah, that’s the part of the game that I love, and that’s the part of the game I relish. So I’m looking forward to that part of it. And, yeah, whatever comes, comes.

“At Saints, some of the boys and me, we just joke around what we’re going to do if we should score a try. The main thing I will think about is trying to play well, perform well, do your role as much you can for the team. The other stuff will kind of showcase itself.”

“It’s [always] been in me. School, family… always been outgoing, always been the loudest in the room. We played charades at Christmas and loads of board games. But I can’t pin it down, I’d just say I was very well brought up by my parents, and very close to my siblings, and it just gave me lots of confidence. Growing into myself and growing into my character, it just kind of came upon me.

“I had a little leadership at school, I was captain of the younger rugby teams, when I was 14, 15. I enjoyed the competitiveness of it. Just loved always being hurt, and always going to dark places, and relished off that.

“And yeah, I want to put on a good show. I want to get the fans close to the game, make them enjoy it as much as I can. It’s something different to what rugby’s used to, and hopefully I’m changing it a little bit. At the end of the day, we want this game to be packed-out in stadiums, we want fans selling tickets out in seconds. Anything that we can do, players wise and the team, to make that happen is only going to grow the sport more.”