England to unleash Pollock, Farrell backs Crowley, No excuses for Scotland

Hear the thoughts of all four camps as England face Ireland and Scotland play Wales in Cardiff in the third round of the Six Nations on Saturday…

Borthwick: Time is right to unleash pantomime villain Pollock

Henry Pollock has been told by head coach Steve Borthwick to express himself after England’s rising star was given his first Test start with the aim of bringing Allianz Stadium, Twickenham to its feet against Ireland.

Pollock has been promoted to No 8 for Saturday’s Six Nations contest after all seven of his previous appearances were made as an impact replacement.

The swaggering 21-year-old thrives on the big stage having blazed a trail into England’s senior team at the end of the 2025 Six Nations and then won a place on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.

Now Borthwick wants him to ignite the revival after last Saturday’s 31-20 defeat by Scotland damaged England’s title aspirations.

“Henry’s full of energy, full of character and full of beans and he’s already achieved so much in a very short space of time,” Borthwick said. “He’s larger than life and each new level you challenge him with, he seems to thrive.

“As a player, he gets people excited, he gets people jumping up and down with joy. He can bring a euphoria to people that not many players can.

“I will challenge him to express himself, be himself, while also bringing the self sacrifice that a team sport needs. Do both.

“He does it wonderfully well and I am looking forward to seeing him do it from the start.”

While the Northampton showman is a favourite among England fans, he is cast as a pantomime villain by opponents with French teams in particular looking to wind him up during European games.

Borthwick added: “He seems to thrive on that doesn’t he? It seems to just keep fuelling more of the energy that is within him. I find it incredible watching him – there are not many players like him. We want superstars in the game.”

Pollock’s back-row partner Tom Curry – who has also been promoted from the bench to start – spoke to Sky Sports this week and had one message: “We have to be better.”

He said: “Coming into this week, we have to start better and we just have to do it.

“It’s an individual responsibility more so, get yourself right and what you give off to your team-mates and everyone attacks the game together really.”

Farrell backs ‘confident’ Crowley’ but scrum concerns remain

Jack Crowley played every minute of Ireland’s triumphant 2024 Six Nations campaign but his only start in the tournament following Sam Prendergast’s Test debut in November of that year came away to Italy last March.

The 26-year-old will partner recalled scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park as part of five personnel changes, with prop Tadhg Furlong and back-rows Tadhg Beirne and Josh van der Flier also returning.

Asked why he opted for Crowley, Farrell said: “Because of what we’ve seen and how he’s come through and performed and playing confidently.

“You back what you see and all of that. I suppose sometimes you see people come from the back, have nothing to lose and then just rip in.

“And we’ve not just seen that with Jack, we’ve seen it with James Ryan – not selected to start in the first game, came on against France and had a storming game and has continued that.

“I saw that with James as well with the Lions, when he was behind the eight ball there with a quad injury and he was chasing his tail to try and get into the squad and played his best rugby within that tour.

“That’s because people are able to sit back a bit, make sense of it and rip into the performance. You saw that with Jack’s performance last week.”

Elsewhere for Ireland – whose scrum came under massive pressure again against Italy last week, having been decimated by South Africa in November – lock Edwin Edogbo impressed off the bench against the Azzurri but has not been included in the matchday 23 for Twickenham.

Joe McCarthy and James Ryan continue as the starting locks and, while there is no recognised second row option on Ireland’s bench, Beirne, who starts at blindside flanker, can cover the position. Furlong does return to start at tighthead in the front-row, but England will likely sense blood at the scrum.

“We’ve got some good players who are used to pushing in the scrum in the second row,” Farrell said.

“Any type of unit like Edwin is going to be quite dominant in that department. I suppose the occasion, when you’re coming on as a new-ish player in a big game like that at Twickenham, are you going to have it in your legs in the last 10 minutes or not?

“There’s a difference there in that regard, but I suppose Joe McCarthy’s big enough and strong enough.

“We’ve certainly got a determined pack this week to make sure that that area [scrum] is attacked from us.”

No excuses for Scotland in Cardiff – Townsend expects Kinghorn, Van der Merwe response

Gregor Townsend expects Blair Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe to be fuelled by “huge determination” against Wales after they were restored to Scotland’s starting XV for Saturday’s Six Nations game in Cardiff.

The British and Irish Lions duo were high-profile omissions from the 23 for the first two championship matches against Italy and England amid question marks about their form.

Toulouse back Kinghorn will start at full-back in place of Tom Jordan, who drops to the bench, while Van der Merwe, Scotland’s record try-scorer, returns at wing to take over from Jamie Dobie, who is out due to injury.

“Blair was back playing on Sunday night for Toulouse so it’s good to get an outlet when you’ve not been selected,” said head coach Townsend.

“He played really well in that game and he’s recovered quickly after that evening game. Duhan’s trained really well and very much been part of our squad, so there’ll be a freshness around both of them coming back in and huge determination to play well.

“Like any player, you want to be part of the squad and for those players that have been in our squad for a few years, it’ll be tough for them to take.

“But they’ve backed the team and they understand the reasons why we had different selections going into our opening two games. And now they have an opportunity to represent their country again.”

Scotland, who have been training in Spain this week, are hot favourites to defeat an ailing Wales side who have lost heavily to France and England in their opening two matches.

“I’m sure last week a lot of people thought England were clear favourites [against Scotland], so the game is not about predictions and previous form,” said Townsend.

“It’s a lot about what you do in those 80 minutes, and we’ve got to make sure that we get our game out.”

Griffin: Wales on red alert for Russell magic

Wales prop Archie Griffin has warned his international colleagues that Bath team-mate Finn Russell can produce magic at any moment for Scotland.

Fly-half Russell produced an outstanding display as Scotland swept aside England last weekend and will be seeking to inflict more Six Nations damage on winless Wales.

Tighthead Griffin knows the threat posed by the British and Irish Lions star from their time together at Prem Rugby club Bath.

“He practises every moment that you see on the field,” Griffin said. “He’s doing it in training so he can pull it out [magic] whenever.

“At Bath he’s really brought some direction to the team from where we were before he came. He leads a lot of the attack and he’s always looking for you to jump out of the line.

“It’s a lot of patience, seeing what happens, and then reading off that if somebody tries to do something on their own or goes out of system.

“That’s when he comes alive. So it’s just not giving him that and sticking to our system.”

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