Pollock to make first England start against Ireland

LONDON, Feb 17 - Henry Pollock will make his first start for England against Ireland in the Six Nations at Twickenham on Saturday after coach Steve Borthwick named a team showing three changes from the lineup beaten by Scotland.

The dynamic 21-year-old Northampton forward has seven caps from the bench and will start at Number Eight, with Tom Curry coming in at blindside flanker. Ben Earl moves to openside in a highly mobile back row.

Ollie Lawrence starts at outside centre with Tommy Freeman moving to the right wing in place of Tom Roebuck. Henry Arundell keeps his place on the left wing after being cleared to play following his red card in the 31-20 Murrayfield defeat that ended England's 12-game winning run.

Scrumhalf Jack van Poortvliet and flyhalf/fullback Marcus Smith were named among the replacements on a 6-2 split bench.

Captain Maro Itoje will win his 100th cap, becoming the ninth England player to reach that milestone.

At the opposite end of the "on-field" persona is Pollock.

"He's a young man who is full of energy, full of character, full of beans all the time and he’s already achieved so much in a very short space of time," Borthwick said.

"This is his second Six Nations, he’s been on a Lions tour and each new level you challenge him with, he seems to thrive."

BIG PERSONALITY

Borthwick said he was struck by Pollock's personality when he met him as an 18-year-old.

"I was stood in the car park and this bundle of energy just bounced up to me and, typically when an 18-year-old meets the England head coach for the first time they are usually on the shy and retiring side. But this man is the complete opposite, gregarious, loud, the first thing he said was,‘how are you, mate?’.

"I thought, 'right, you’re different, wonderfully different' and that’s the kind of character we’ve got in the squad."

Borthwick said he had been impressed by Pollock's confidence and readiness to take risks, identifying a moment in a European match against Munster when it was brought home to him.

"The game was incredibly tight and Henry comes on late in the game and goes and wins a jackal turnover, a jackal penalty, that effectively closes the game," he said, sounding more animated than usual when discussing one of his players.

"I want Henry to get the ball in his hands. Ben Earl had more than 20 carries last weekend and I want Henry to have as many carries as possible as well. If we do that, it’s another string to the bow of this team."

England team to play Ireland:

15–Freddie Steward, 14–Tommy Freeman, 13–Ollie Lawrence, 12–Fraser Dingwall, 11–Henry Arundell, 10–George Ford, 9–Alex Mitchell, 8–Henry Pollock, 7–Ben Earl, 6–Tom Curry, 5–Ollie Chessum, 4–Maro Itoje, 3–Joe Heyes, 2–Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1–Ellis Genge

Replacements:

16–Jamie George, 17–Bevan Rodd, 18–Trevor Davison, 19–Alex Coles, 20–Guy Pepper, 21–Sam Underhill, 22–Jack van Poortvliet, 23–Marcus Smith REUTERS