Borthwick thinks big for Boks but holds back Pollock

England coach goes for tried and tested players in Nations Championship opener, with rising star on the bench

- Robert Kitson

Last-ditch attempts are being made to try to boost the attendance at Ellis Park this weekend, with sharply discounted tickets now on sale for South Africa’s meeting with England.

They may succeed in putting a few more bums on seats, but not half as many as would have been the case had Steve Borthwick named Henry Pollock, the eye-catching Northampton flanker, in his starting XV for the opening round of the Nations Championship.

There are certainly plenty locally who cannot wait to see Pollock’s first collision with the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Jasper Wiese or Pieter-Steph du Toit, with those eagerly licking their lips including several hard-nosed former Springboks and a random passerby at England’s team hotel this week. “We had one person come up to him in the hotel and say the South Africans are coming for you,” reported Pollock’s teammate George Furbank. “It was actually a guy who was Congolese. We had just finished watching the football and he came up and said: ‘You’re public enemy No 1 here, mate.’”