The wild Henry Pollock antic that revs up team-mate Craig Wright

As a plummy-voiced, in-your-face Englishman, Henry Pollock would appear to be the epitome of an individual others outside of his own changing room love to hate. During matches you can almost sense the amount of self-restraint, knowing that cameras are everywhere, that opponents need to prevent them from giving him a slap.

Pollock is not the original wind-up merchant, as there have been plenty in the game before him, but, right now, no other player divides opinion as much as him. However, his team-mates love him to bits, for the fact he’s also a jolly good egg, as well as a jolly good egg-chaser. So much so that Northampton hooker Craig Wright even allows his former England U20 team-mate to slap him before matches.

Flame-haired Wright, a hot-head by his own admission, tries to temper his natural aggression in the build-up to games by staying calm, but just before kick-off, he turns to Pollock to raise the red mist. Now four years into his senior Saints career, Wright’s consistently good performances suggest he’s found the right emotional formula and he admits he feels right at home in the table-topping Saints’ changing room.

“All the lads are absolutely buzzing; Pollock is being loud, Colesy is revving everyone up and Dingers is coming through calm and level-headed, telling everyone what we need to do and saying what clear messages we need,” said the Essex-born hooker.

“I am just finding out what works for me. Since very early on in my career I have just tried different things. Against Bordeaux, I found putting my music on, putting my headphones on, it kind of isolated me a little bit. For some reason I don’t like to have headphones on, I like to socialise, I like to get around the boys, feed off their energy.

“My best way of thinking about a game is not thinking about a game, as ironic as it sounds,” he continued. “I just like to keep cool, calm and collected, I know my job, I have practiced it throughout the week, I have done so much training and preparation, that’s kind of what I go to and what I think about.

“When I get on the pitch, I can get very hot-headed, I can get very aggressive, so I need to calm down as much as I can and then, just before the game, before we are about to go out, Pollock will give me a slap or whatnot, I even had a headbutt from him against Pau, to get me going, to flick that switch, and that kind of puts me in the right mindset. He definitely gets proper revved-up before games; I quite like it, it’s really good energy to be in and around.”

Chelsmford-born, Wright grew up in heart of Essex, in Braintree, and went to Felsted School. He was first noticed whilst at Colchester Rugby Club, and then got invited along to Saints’ Development Player Pathway (DPP) U14s programme and he hasn’t looked back since.

Before rugby became a career, he played football to a decent standard and loved mucking around on trial bikes, a passion of his Dad Clinton, who used to ride competitively on beaches around the country.

“I played at Ipswich Academy for a bit, I was a goalkeeper there, but then I kind of fell out of love with it and decided I wanted to shove my head in the spokes somewhere and tackle some people, and get into that.”

Goalkeepers in football and hookers in rugby are both positions where you need a thick skin, because when things go wrong, they often shoulder the blame.

Huge credit must go to Phil Dowson and Sam Vesty for the environment they have created at Franklin’s Gardens, which allows young players like Pollock, George Hendy, Edoardo Todaro, Archie McParland and Wright not to be over-awed whenever they’ve been given a chance, or dwell for too long on any mistakes.

“This coaching setup don’t blame you for making an error,” Wright quickly acknowledged. “They want you to learn from it and develop from it.

“I used to be quite hard on myself when I was a goalkeeper, if I’d let a goal in, I’d blame myself. And half the time as a hooker you might get the blame, but sometimes it is not just your fault. As I have matured, I have started to realise that, to let it go straight over my head, and get on with it and focus on what my next job is.”

A thunderous carrier of the ball, blessed with pace, the dynamic 21-year-old first properly made a name for himself towards the end of last season, using Curtis Langdon’s misfortune with injury to claim a place on the bench for the Champions Cup final vs Bordeaux.

Wright has kicked on from there, and in the last couple of months has made the No.2 jersey his own. “I wanted to take this opportunity and grab it with both hands. It’s not many times as 21-year-old front-rower gets to go out on the pitch and start for their local club, so it has definitely been a surprise, but a very welcomed one. It’s just how consistent I can be, making sure I put out good performances regardless of whether I am starting or on the bench.

“I think last season I wasn’t getting as much consistent game time and for me to come into the PREM, into Europe, and get plenty of starts, plenty of benches, is really enabling me to develop as a player, and it is making my game flourish quite a bit.”