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Steve Borthwick’s side fell to a bruising 45-21 defeat in front of a hostile home crowd in Johannesburg
England star Henry Pollock was widely booed by the home crowd in South Africa as he came off the bench to face the Springboks in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The polarising 21-year-old was brought onto the field shortly before the hour mark with Steve Borthwick’s side trailing on their way to a 45-21 defeat at Ellis Park. He was met by a chorus of boos and jeers from the crowd as he made his way on to the pitch, having also had his name roundly booed when it was announced pre-match.
Pollock, who was unable to help turn the tide as the Springboks ran in two more tries in the final 10 minutes to complete their tally of seven, was also booed loudly every time he touched the ball.
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While Saturday’s match was the first time the Northampton Saints man had faced South Africa at international level, he has become public enemy number one amongst Springbok fans, pundits and former players, who have allowed themselves to be wound up by his cocky persona.
However, while local contempt has all been aimed at Pollock, that didn’t stop his England team-mate Guy Pepper from being inadvertently caught up in it all, as he was also loudly booed by the Ellis Park crowd when he touched the ball.
Rather than anything Pepper had done himself, however, it was a case of mistaken identity, with he and Pollock both sporting similar looks on the field of the play, as well as both playing in the back row.
It comes after Pollock’s club captain George Furbank – whose long-awaited return to England duty was scrapped after he was hospitalised with appendicitis ahead of the game – revealed that the flanker had been approached by a stranger in the team hotel and given an alarming warning.
“Every time we’ve spoken about the opposition hating him, he seems to go out and perform,” said Furbank. “He seems to get better and better the bigger the stage.
“I genuinely think it doesn’t actually bother him. I don’t know how because if that was me, I would be a little bit different.
“We had one person come up to him in the hotel and say ‘South Africans are coming for you’,” he added. “It was actually a Congolese guy who had just finished watching the football and he came up to him and said ‘you’re public enemy number one!’.”
Meanwhile, former British and Irish Lion John Robbie, who is now a popular talk radio host in South Africa, said that Pollock is “absolutely what South Africans hate” as he explained why there was so much contempt for the young Englishman.
“He embodies that particular English fascination with personality, star quality,” he told the Telegraph. “That’s precisely what triggers South Africans, particularly Afrikaners. South Africans are supposed to be quiet, dour, stiff-upper-lip, modest, thankful to God. Then you have this kid who is everything they don’t like: he’s outspoken, brash, a bit arrogant.
“Afrikaner society has changed a lot and has got a lot more liberal in many respects, but it still has that in-built conservatism, Dutch Reformed Church, that sort of thing. I find it hugely amusing.
“But scrape away that, and you will find a deep respect because South Africans recognise talent. Make no mistake, they appreciate what a player he is and his potential genius.”
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