WHATEVER SATURDAY HOLDS for Ireland at Twickenham, the day is set to be a notable one for English rugby. Henry Pollock looks destined to have a big future in the game and this weekend sees the 21-year-old start his first Test game for England.

In doing so, he’ll be coming up against many of the Ireland players he called teammates during his summer with the Lions last summer.

Pollock debuted for England in last season’s Six Nations – having been on duty with the U20s earlier in the championship. His stunning form with Northampton earned a call-up to Andy Farrell’s Lions squad, coming off the bench in the final Test. Pollock then came off the bench in all four of England’s November internationals and was again used as an impact substitute against Wales and Scotland over the last two weekends. 

Now, he makes the jump to Test starter. Confirmation that Pollock had been handed the number eight shirt by Steve Borthwick arrived while Ireland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Parks was doing media in Abbotstown yesterday.

“He’s unreal man,” Gibson-Park said of the Northampton back row.

“An unbelievable athlete, moves unbelievably well, seriously quick, great with the ball in hand. So yeah, he’s a serious one to try and take away his strengths.”

And, as any of the Lions tourists can attest, he’s a larger than life presence both on and off the pitch.

“He’s exactly how you see online, so you guys probably know him as well as I do. He’s a great young fella, full of energy, and we’ll be looking forward to getting out there against them.”

Gibson-Park spoke to the media in Abbotstown yesterday. Gavin Cullen / INPHO Gavin Cullen / INPHO / INPHO

The Lions tour also allowed Gibson-Park get a closer look at his expected opposite number this weekend, scrum-half Alex Mitchell.

“He’s a great player, isn’t he? He adds a lot to their game, I feel, I think his biggest strength is his running game and getting on the ball.

“He certainly possesses a good few weapons with that side of his game, but he’s pretty consistent with his box kicking as well, so he’s a pretty well-rounded kind of player and one I love to come up against.”

Gibson-Park is expected to return to the Ireland starting team having swapped to the bench for last weekend’s win against Italy. While the Leinster player struggled to influence the game in the way he would have liked against France in round one, he made a notable impact as a replacement against the Azzurri.

The scrum-half admitted that being rotated out for Craig Casey added an extra edge to his game.

“I’m a competitive guy and so these kinds of things happen and I go and try to find a bit of feedback and then go out and train and compete. It’s always been my mindset and I think it will remain the same until I’m done. 

“I suppose I was happy (with how I played). You know, as a bench, we spoke about trying to bring a bit of energy to the game and I think for the most part we did that. Certainly areas we can still be better at, but that was kind of the main thing we wanted to add when coming on was lifting the boys, and giving a bit of energy and it felt as though we did that for the most part.”

Ireland still aren’t where they want to be in terms of finding their best form, but moments like Robert Baloucoune’s second-half try against Italy are a reminder of what they can deliver when everything clicks. Those moments also carry some frustration, as the players know they should be finding that cohesion on a more consistent basis.

(There’s) a little bit of frustration because we know we’re capable of it, but we haven’t been delivering it consistently.

“So there’s a little bit of both and I suppose it just shows when we get things rolling we can be tough to play against.

“We have to prove it to ourselves, that it’s in there,” he adds.

“And I think the frustrating thing to a point is that we’ve put together some really good training sessions but we haven’t been able to deliver it out there on the weekend so that’s probably our biggest work-on as a team really, is delivering on the weekend.

“But we certainly know we’re capable of it. Like I said, it’s a pretty big work-on for us to deliver at the weekend, which is ultimately the 80 minutes we’re judged by. So, yeah, a big work-on for us.”