It is too soon for Henry Pollock to become the Lions bolter

[ASFN Admin]

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Henry Pollock’s two-try England debut against Wales has fuelled calls for his Lions selection - Getty Images/David Rogers

Let us begin with a central proposition with which you may or may not agree – the British and Irish Lions is not a finishing school. Unlike club and country tours, the Lions is a place where the best talent from four unions combine and hope to become better than the sum of their parts.

The delicious prospect with the Lions is that players who we see year in, year out can unite in combinations we have always wondered about, and we see if they generate the results hoped for. What fans need to remember is that there are plenty of examples of players who had one decent Six Nations tournament in a Lions year, got selected and then failed to deliver. A tour might be able to carry the odd selection like this, but it cannot afford many of them before the whole enterprise is compromised.

I am not sure why this has come to pass but there now seems to be a disproportionate interest, nay obsession, with the question of who might be a Lions ‘bolter’. I suppose it fits into the romantic fairytale of a hitherto relatively unknown player shooting from obscurity to become the hero of the moment. In the past names like Jason Robinson and John Bentley have gone down in the annals of Lions history as this sort of player. The truth is a little different.

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Jason Robinson, pictured in Lions action in 2001, was labelled a ‘bolter’ but really he was a seasoned professional - Action Images/Andrew Budd

Bentley was first capped by England in 1988. I know that because I was on the same tour, and he then switched codes and signed for Leeds and even played at my hometown team of Halifax for five seasons. In a league career that lasted eight years he played for Great Britain and in 261 games scored 166 tries. When he returned to union via Newcastle, he was a relative unknown to union fans outside England, only because he had been plying his trade in waters unfamiliar to them. To anybody like me, who follows both codes, he was a seasoned and successful player.

Robinson had a stellar league career before turning to union, including caps for England and Great Britain. His Wigan side was hegemonic for a decade, with Robinson contributing 167 tries in 300 games for the club. Prior to his 2001 Lions selection he became the first player ever to win the Premiership and Super League. Again, much of his obscurity stemmed from ignorance of his complete playing career.

Given these facts, neither of these players were bolters in the truest sense and there is one more aspect of their Lions success that deserves mention: they were both wingers, and the similarity between the position in both codes cannot be ignored. Given their peripheral involvement, apart from fielding high balls, it is possible to switch codes and deal with different technical points in attack and defence more quickly. It is no coincidence that players from league who have tried other union positions have taken much longer to adjust. Some, like Sam Burgess, who was an outstanding league player, did not manage to make anything like a similar impact in union for this reason. Andy Farrell, ironically the head coach of the Lions, fared similarly.

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Fin Smith looks a safer bet for a Lions pick ahead of England and Northampton team-mate Pollock

This leads to another point about bolters: they are far more likely to be players who come from scoring positions because they naturally glean more attention. Players who trade blows in the trenches are the foundation of any team’s success, because we all know how important the battle of the bosh is to modern-day rugby. Players may excel around the breakdown but stand out nowhere near as much as a player who finishes off four tries, even if he is merely the final recipient of the ball.

As a final observation, no player will admit this, but it is the case that they all know who they do and do not rate. They have friends and team-mates who they know are in contention for Lions selection and if they are not chosen because of a bolter, whom they will think has not earned his place, it can cause resentment. They will not say it and will not demonstrate it overtly, but it will be there, nonetheless.

For all these reasons I doubt whether the increased speculation about whether Northampton and England’s Henry Pollock being a bolter this summer is likely to come to fruition. Pollock is an outstanding prospect and given a longer run of England form he will be in contention for a Lions place in the future. If anything, it is his club-mate, Fin Smith, who still has relatively limited international experience, who will fill a bolter role.

This week’s lead-up to the announcement of the Lions coaching team will generate lots of speculation and debate, and the aftermath an equal measure of the same.

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