Henry Pollock's top speed clocked in hat-trick display

Henry Pollock needed little more than 30 minutes from the bench to make his mark against Fiji on Saturday at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in round two of the Nations Championship.

Having joined the action after 48 minutes, the 21-year-old finished with the second-most metres carried in the match, two line breaks and five defenders beaten on the way to scoring a hat-trick.

This wasn’t an ordinary hat-trick either, particularly for a flanker, with each try requiring plenty of speed, as well as some astute running lines.

The first try, however, was simply all down to pace as he hared after an exquisitely weighted grubber kick from Ben Earl – a moment of skill the No.8 deserves a lot of credit for. There was no requirement for strength, agility or timing here; this was purely a test of raw speed up against Fiji winger Jiuta Wainiqolo.

It is worth noting that Wainiqolo had already played 55 minutes at this point, 15 of which were with only two in the backfield after fellow wing Vuate Karawalevu was taken off following the red card to Simione Kuruvoli. On top of that, the Fijian needed to turn to chase the kick, albeit from several metres in front of Pollock. Nevertheless, this is a player who has been clocked running at almost 24 miles per hour, and the England back-row went toe-to-toe with him all the way to the line.

 

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England have revealed that the Northampton Saints star clocked 21 mph in the foot race. While that doesn’t rival the figures posted by specialist speedsters such as Louis Rees-Zammit, it is exceptional for a 103kg forward. England back-row colleague Ben Earl, for instance, reached a top speed of 20.9 mph against Australia at Allianz Stadium earlier in the season.

Some may argue that the 12-cap international may have been able to reach a higher speed, but had to slow down in order to ground the ball. This was not a one-off either, as Pollock’s pace was on show again for his second try, where he skinned Fiji full-back Salesi Rayasi.

England head coach Steve Borthwick has flirted with the idea of playing Pollock on the wing over the past year, and while that is yet to come to fruition, this performance proved that he would not look out of place there.