Such has been Pollock’s impact that already children at rugby clubs across England have been spotted running around with black head tape on, scoring tries and imitating his pulse-checking celebration.
Northampton’s club shop does a roaring trade in sales of black head tape, which Pollock wears to protect his ears.
But his influence goes further than that.
Former Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll came home from covering last Saturday’s game against Italy in Dublin to find his son dressed as Pollock.
Bordeaux Begles players mocked Pollock, who ended up in a final-whistle scuffle, in their post-match celebrations after winning last season’s Champions Cup final.
“Pollock is an outstanding rugby player and I think he is brilliant for the game,” former Scotland scrum-half Andy Nicol told Radio 5 Live.
“My daughters are 25 and 22 and they don’t know who Tom Curry or Ben Earl are. They know who Henry Pollock is.”
In less than six months, he went from being an England Under-20 player to playing for the British and Irish Lions.
“He is a great character and I got on well with him on the Lions tour in a weird kind of way,” said assistant coach Johnny Sexton, who received a tongue-in-cheek 40th birthday message on tour off Pollock.
A number of solo tries – one which cut open Leinster in a Champions Cup semi-final win and a remarkable chip-and-chase against Sale Sharks – showed Pollock has the speed and finishing prowess of a Test winger.
That ability to turn a game on its head, with a moment of magic, was missing for England in their defeat by Scotland last weekend.
Former Ireland wing Shane Horgan added on BBC 5 Live: “He does things that few others can, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a spectacular moment by him [against Ireland] that galvanises England’s performance.
“You’ve got an extremely highly skilled, massively talented individual who has enormous self-confidence, and that confidence has not been blunted by anything yet.
“That is when you get those generational players. They have all the components but also this bullet-proof confidence, which means they can just keep on delivering throughout their career.”
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