LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Henry Pollock has had his brickbats, so it’s only right he gets plaudits for how he's knuckled down'

There were eyeballs elsewhere, across America at the World Cup, across London at the Oval and at Queen’s, yet the PREM proved that it too has currency in the sporting market with an 82,000 full house drawn to the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham. As the sparsely populated stands for the URC final on Friday night at Croke Park showed, none of this should be taken for granted. The punter holds all the cards: if he or she fancies what is on offer then they will come. They came to South-West London, from all corners of the land as the mixed-bag colours in the stands showed because they had faith in what was on offer. It was a day in the sun although the weather alone is a fickle part of the package. Year on year spectators know that they will get hammer-and-tongs rugby to round off the season. It is early summer’s farewell to an arduous nine-month campaign.

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As with the match itself, the action across the winter months was imperfect, flawed in its error-count but never less than whole-hearted and intense. There is much yet to correct with the PREM – too few teams, no jeopardy at the bottom, too many blow-out scores – but when the end product is what Northampton Saints and Exeter Chiefs served up on Saturday afternoon, then the heart of the sport can be seen to be beating strongly, even if we all must guard against those damned mid-half hydration breaks becoming a TV ad-man’s opportunity as it is proving at the FIFA World Cup.

Let’s not pretend that the play-off concept has any claim to being fair to the regular season league leaders. It was designed as a revenue-making exercise, a public airing for the sponsors, a day out reward for their investment. There is always a sigh of relief when the ‘right team’ wins. By that criteria, Saturday played out as it should with the form team of the nine month slog, the Saints, getting due reward for their sustained excellence throughout the season, manifested in their record-breaking haul of 111 tries coming into the game.

There was also the unsung soul of the side to consider, its determination to work socks off for each other, to trust and believe in each other, all of which was reflected in their trophy-winning defence that repelled a stirring Exeter side who simply refused to cash in their chips and settle for having unexpectedly made the final in the first place. That’s what makes for a champion team – toughness, togetherness, sacrifice, mutual love for the cause, ego suppressed, musketeer one-for-all mentality to the fore. We have all been in thrall to free-wheeling Saints with the craft of Fin Smith and the potency of Tommy Freeman triggering hymns of praise but they are as nothing if there are not proper foundations in place. They were on Saturday. Above all else, it was guts wot won it.

If further evidence were needed as to the considerable job done by Phil Dowson and his coaches and management, it is that they ranked only eighth for their salary-cap spending.

All of which is good news for club as well as country. Northampton’s success has been built from the bottom up, through good practice and perceptive scouting and coaching. 14 members of their PREM-winning side at Twickenham came through their academy, home-grown with the same umbilical connection to Franklin’s Gardens that the likes of George Furbank and Henry Pollock have. The more that Harlequins-bound Furbank was quizzed about his deep-rooted connection to the Gardens, a former season-ticket holder himself no less, and his impending move, the more it became clear that he would loved to have stayed. But that’s show business. The bottom line counts. And if further evidence were needed as to the considerable job done by Phil Dowson and his coaches and management, it is that they ranked only eighth for their salary-cap spending.

The club game now gives way to the international scene with Steve Borthwick naming his squad for the inaugural rounds of the Nations Championship. Borthwick ought to be delighted by what he witnessed on Saturday, particularly the line-in-the-sand attitude of both teams. The England head coach will need plenty of that fire and defiance at Ellis Park in a fortnight’s time when the Springboks will be hell bent on showing that the flimsy play of the Bulls in Dublin on Friday night was not reflective of national aspirations.

The very fact that the English domestic season ends with two all-or-nothing knockout games will put Borthwick’s men in good stead. The less clear-cut conundrum to solve is whether the Saints’ way can become – or should become – the England way.

There may be concerns about the state-of-being of various players at the end of a post-Lions season – although the Springboks or Argentina never seem to complain about their year-long exertions – but there is little doubt that this trio of matches against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina, represent a mood-shaping challenge for Borthwick. As Thomas Tuchel’s side has shown in America, there is such yearning to get behind a national side, a desire to see it play good football above all else. Tuchel’s men managed that in spades against Croatia. It’s time for Borthwick’s side to be let off the leash.

If you could blend a side from the two teams on show at the Allianz, that would be an ideal set-up: Northampton’s attacking intent combined with Exeter’s teak-tough know-how.

If you could blend a side from the two teams on show at the Allianz, that would be an ideal set-up: Northampton’s attacking intent combined with Exeter’s teak-tough know-how. George Hendy enhanced his claims with two well-taken tries while Alex Coles confirmed his status in the second-row. Fin Smith needs to be given the freedom to play as he sees it. The fly-half wasn’t perfect on Saturday but there was attitude in all that he did. There was also in the play of a man who helped carve out potential openings. As Henry Pollock has had the brickbats for his show-pony tendencies, it’s only right that he should get the plaudits for how has knuckled down to the task in hand – using his abundant skill to influence a game. He did it on Saturday with the relentlessness as well as diligence of his play, doing the right things at the right time all the time. Tom Willis has flown the coop: step forward Pollock who should be anointed as England’s No 8 through to the World Cup.

Pollock won the Peter Deakin Medal, the man-of-the-match award in honour of a former Bradford Bulls and Saracens executive who recognised the value of star products on the field of play being the chief marketing tool of a sport. Saturday proved that the game is in good order.