Henry Pollock's stunning England rise continues - 'Bomb Squad' mentality revealed after defeating Wallabies

Pollock rocked a fresh look with a floppy head of bleach blond hair, with Chelsea footballer Alejandro Garnacho revealed as the inspiration behind Pollock's new locks. "Yeah, I just thought it would be different. I just saw Garnacho was dyeing his hair ages ago, so I thought, yeah, f**k it, why not?" Pollock said after the match at the Allianz Stadium.

"[Garnacho is] Just always a good player, always liked him. Just thought I'd change it up and it was alright."

Having already introduced the rugby landscape to his iconic 'check the pulse' celebration, the Saints man struck a new pose after breaking away to score England's penultimate try of the match. Pollock was quick to react to a high ball, and offered a solid support line to exploit a gap in the faltering Australian defence. Despite the best efforts of a tap tackle attempt, Pollock regained his footing and made it to the line, before striking a new celebration that would quickly blow up on social media.

"I got the ball and then I kind of obviously see the try line and think, ‘shit, I'm in here’. Then I got tap-tackled and I was thinking, 'I hope there's no one close behind me'. The wet weather kind of helped and kind of dragged myself over and yeah, cool moment.

"Credit to Fordy [George Ford] and Buck [Tom Roebuck] for getting in the air and that kick was great. We talked all week about where you are on that pitch when that kick goes up and lucky enough I was in the right place."

The Northampton back row has now notched up three England tries in just two appearances, following on from the brace he scored on debut against Wales, in the final round of the 2025 Six Nations. That performance in Cardiff catapulted Pollock forward for his place upon the British & Irish Lions tour this past Summer, yet the back row bolter was unable to make a Test match squad out in Australia.

Pollock wasted no time as he finally got his hands on the Wallabies, as he broke free for a stunning try to help England gain a foothold towards victory in their Autumn Series opener. Reflecting upon his journey over the past few months, Pollock said;

"Being on the Summer tour, seeing them [the Wallabies] loads, talking about them loads, it was kind of fresh in the mind. We come in here with a clear mind of what we need to do. It showed tonight in how we did that."

"We had an amazing summer and coming back into this environment, it's different and I'm loving the new challenges. We've got a great group and a great coaching staff around us and we're all just trying to be better. We've got an amazing depth in the back row with Peps [Guy Pepper], [Tom] Curry, Unders [Sam Underhill], Riggsy [Ben Earl] who obviously got a man of the match today.

"So, it's a competitive place to be in, that's where you want to be. You want to be competitive, you want to be competing with some of the best in the world and we're definitely doing that. So I'm enjoying my rugby and I can probably speak on behalf of all the boys. We're just enjoying competing with each other every day and just training. It's just fun."

Pollock was unleashed off the bench at the 51st minute, in a quintet of British & Irish Lions forwards that made up Steve Borthwick's personal 'bomb squad'. Pollock joined the fray alongside a re-freshed front row of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge and Will Stuart, whilst Tom Curry added firepower on the flank.

"We spoke about it in the week how competitive the back row is. Steve sat all of us down on the bench and said, ‘look, you're going to be on the bench, but we want to bring a massive impact’. That last quarter of the game is where teams die off and we were just happy that we can come and make an impact. That's what we did tonight.

"Before we came on, we just spoke about running hard, me and Curry were speaking about off-ball efforts, running really hard. We were speaking all week about how the back field players are going to get on the ball. How Fordy [George] is going to put it up high, and Mitch [Alex Mitchell].

"So we spoke about getting high in the middle and like you saw from Ben Earl's try at the start of the game, getting high in the middle with Underhill. Then, my try was pretty much exactly the same. So credit to the boys, putting us in good positions. But again, we wanted to come on and run really hard."

"Obviously, at the start of the week, it's disappointing that you're not starting, but you switch straight to making sure the starters are good, they know their roles. And then talking to the people on the bench, meeting this morning, talking about what impact we bring to the bench. We showed tonight how much that meant to us and how that pushed it along."

The aerial battle was a definite focus point throughout this Autumn Series clash at the Allianz, with the addition of the heavens opening only making the high-ball contest all the more difficult. Borthwick's selected match day XV hinted at a kick-heavy contest, with renowned high-ball specialist Freddie Steward starting at fullback, and Sale wing Tom Roebuck pushing Tommy Freeman into the midfield.

"We wanted to have the aerial contests because we have such good people on the wing, to get in the air. Obviously we played Freemo [Tommy Freeman] at 13, who is amazing in the air. We have Manny [Feyi-Waboso] and Roebuck on the wings who are world class in the air. So we definitely tried to get the ball in the air as much as possible."

"We're not just a team that can kick the ball and get the ball back. We want to be a team that can do everything. So we're constantly working on that. Today you saw Fordy and his leadership, and how composed he was and Roebuck in the air was just outstanding. So, it's definitely something we're working on and we've got other things to work on around it."

"In the summer we looked a bit at the AFL [Australian Football League] because in Australia we're talking about that loads and their whole game is the aerial contest. It's something that we could potentially look at. I remember in the summer we spoke about loads and it was definitely something we were working on."