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England boss Borthwick coy over starting Pollock after Fiji hat-trick / Photo: © AFP
England boss Borthwick coy over starting Pollock after Fiji hat-trick
England coach Steve Borthwick refused to say if he would start Henry Pollock after the Northampton flanker produced another high-impact performance off the bench with a hat-trick of tries in a 73-8 Nations Championship rout of Fiji in Liverpool on Saturday.
Pollock was only on the pitch for 32 minutes but that was more than enough time for the 21-year-old to make his presence felt in a game where England scored 11 tries in total to end a five-match losing streak in style.
England, however, are sure to face a sterner challenge when they complete their July leg of the inaugural Nations Championship away to Argentina next weekend.
"Henry is an outstanding player but we’ve got many real top quality back-row forwards," Borthwick told a post-match press conference. "He finished his chances really, really well."
Pressed on whether Pollock would start against the Pumas, former England captain Borthwick added: "He did a pretty good job coming off the bench, didn't he? Pretty good impact."
But scrum-half Alex Mitchell, a team-mate of Pollock at Prem champions Northampton, will not feature against Argentina after suffering a hamstring injury on Saturday.
Mitchell came on as a second-half replacement for Jack van Poortvliet at the home of Premier League football club Everton but lasted just nine minutes before limping off.
His season has been hampered by two previous hamstring injuries, the first of which ruled Mitchell out of the Six Nations.
"I don't know at this stage whether it's a recurrence of the hamstring injury he's had a couple of times already this season, but it looks like he won't be able to be part of next week," said Borthwick
With Van Poortvliet already off the pitch, Marcus Smith moved from full-back to scrum-half, despite never having trained in the position.
"Marcus played really physically in contact, in the tackle, and was so alive to the off-load," said Borthwick. "He made a lot of good things happen for the team."
The coach added: "The ability to get across the tryline so many times was really pleasing because it' s something we’ve struggled with recently, particularly early in the games."
England capitalised on the red card shown to Simione Kuruvoli for kicking Ellis Genge on the brink of half-time, with Borthwick also encouraged by his side's defence against a Fiji side who gave Wales a scare before losing 39-24 last week.
"What was exceptionally pleasing was the defensive performance against a Fiji team that we know can score a try from anywhere," he said.
C. de Fatima--JDB
