Western Force 7-54 British & Irish Lions
Henry Pollock is not going to die wondering whether he gave himself the best chance of making the Lions’ Test team on this tour of Australia.
A mere Lion cub he may be, at the age of 20, but Pollock knows only the front-foot approach, and it mostly worked well for him in the patchy win over Western Force in Perth in the tourists’ opening match Down Under.
Pollock’s sharp tip-on pass to Josh van der Flier and supporting break as Van der Flier gave the ball back to him were what we already know to be typical of the young back-rower, in the creation of the second try, by Tomos Williams, of eight by the Lions overall.
Pollock also collected a yellow card near the end of the first half, after a series of Lions offences, as he went for a jackal and was pinged by the referee Ben O’Keeffe – who will handle the first Test on 19 July – for not showing release in a tackle on Force prop Ollie Hoskins.
Henry Pollock sets up a BRILLIANT Lions try! pic.twitter.com/1JqFMglaRH
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) June 28, 2025
Some saw a separation but Pollock might have kept his left arm on the opponent at all times and he will need to be clearer in future, if so.
In this match, 10 minutes off the field did not matter much – Williams for the Lions was the only scorer in that period, as the tourists piled up the points from leading 21-7 at the break. But it could be calamitous in a Test.
There was also a scuffle involving Pollock after another first-half Lions try when he took a little push off the ball and gave some verbals back, and a slightly panicky pass over team-mate James Lowe’s head in a defensive retreat, and, all in all, plenty to talk about as the conjecture over the Lions’ eventual Test line-up dominates these initial hit-outs.
square RUGBY UNION InterviewThe world according to Henry Pollock
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“I am trying to be myself in this environment,” Pollock told Sky Sports, “and if that means someone says something wrong and I get on the end of it, then so be it.”
It is up to the Lions’ head coach Andy Farrell to sort the great from the worrying in a 54-7 win over a Force team who finished ninth out of 11 in Super Rugby Pacific, and hadn’t played for five weeks, and had three of their best players away with the Australia squad.
In these circumstances, the spotlight tends to shine more brightly than normal on individual contributions – and Elliot Daly showed why his game sense and footballing ability make him the ideal Lion, supplying the glue to create continuity. There were two tries, too, for the full-back who was a Lions Test centre on the 2021 tour and a Test wing in 2017.
Similarly, Joe McCarthy in the forwards attacked the Force through the guts in every way, and Mack Hansen was lively and unrelenting – Farrell from their time together with Ireland is already known to love the wing’s work ethic.
Finn Russell’s smooth distribution for the hour the fly-half was on the field, and cross-kick for the first try, were as expected.
As for Pollock, his eye for a gap and a sweet running line do give him a point of difference, and a chip and regather to make McCarthy’s try in the 55th minute were a reminder of his super-skilful score for Northampton at Sale back in March, which in Pollock terms is about a quarter of a senior career ago.
Henry Pollock (R) is tackled by Western Forces’ Max Burey (Photo: AFP)Having been picked at No 8, Pollock played the ball away to Russell and Sione Tuipulotu from the base of the scrum, and stayed in that position even when Jack Conan came on from the bench.
It will be intriguing to see if the Lions keep playing that way against tougher opposition.
Getting the right balance of physicality and ball-playing in the back five of the pack is one of Farrell’s most pressing challenges.
Among the other unit and collective skills, the Lions’ hopelessness throwing a pod up to catch restarts will be a work-on as they move to meet the higher-ranked Reds and Waratahs in the next week, as will the number of offside penalties conceded.
And it was such a shame to see Williams tweak a hamstring as he dived in for his second try.
It was a finish the Welshman may live to regret even if the point of the Lions experience, as Pollock showed, is not to hang around waiting for fortune to come to you.
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