Saints

Henry Pollock is set to demand a substantial increase on his current Northampton contract to stay at Franklin’s Gardens, with agent Eddie Hearn suggesting annual earnings of £1m are the going rate for the 21-year-old star.

“He’s certainly a seven-figure player,” said Hearn, who met with Pollock on his yacht off Monaco last month, to the Daily Telegraph., external

“The way rugby’s going and what Pollock is doing, his value over the next couple of years will skyrocket, and I think the value of rugby will.”

Pollock’s current deal with Saints, signed in December 2024 and set to expire in summer 2027, is thought to be worth £150,000 a year.

Since agreeing those terms, the back row has made his England debut, toured with the British and Irish Lions and was a key part of the Saints side that reached the Champions Cup final last year and won the Prem title in June.

His exuberant on-pitch persona, relishing confrontation and celebrating tries with rehearsed routines, has attracted attention and a legion of young fans.

Northampton’s ability to match Pollock’s wage demands may be hampered by a league-wide £6.4m salary cap and their own generation of young stars.

Each team can have one marquee player whose pay is exempt from counting towards the cap. Fly-half Fin Smith is thought to currently occupy that place on the Saints’ payroll, while Tommy Freeman, who has reportedly signed a lucrative new extension,, external and scrum-half Alex Mitchell could also make claims to it.

Northampton failed to reach agreement with club captain George Furbank on a new deal last season, allowing the England full-back to leave for Harlequins as they sought to make space under the salary ceiling to improve the terms of young stars like Pollock.

The latest salary cap report, external – which detailed payroll from the 2024-25 season – showed Saints did not pay up to the £6.4m limit, with salary spending higher at Bath, Leicester, Sale, Harlequins and Saracens.

It also showed Pollock’s reported earnings being below average for both his position, with the average back row earning a mean of £192,000, and Test experience, with players between 11 and 20 caps around £224,000.

While Bath fly-half Finn Russell, another of Hearn’s clients, is believed to be the league’s highest earner on a deal worth about £1m a year, few clubs have the resources or space in their salary structure to accommodate such a highly paid figurehead.

Newcastle Red Bulls, recently taken over by the Austrian energy drink giant, are one of the exceptions.

Bristol, who place a large emphasis on the marketability of their players, external and have signed Louis Rees-Zammit, Ellie Kildunne and Ilona Maher over the past couple of seasons, could be another.

Betfred Super League

Bradford (10) 10

Tries: Steinwede Goals: Atkin, Hooley 2

St Helens (12) 40

Tries: Douglas, Sironen, Welsby 2, Shorrocks, Hastings Goals: Hastings 8

St Helens strongly came through an attritional contest with Bradford Bulls to move back up to fourth in Super League.

They were quickly 10-2 behind after a Phoenix Steinwede try, but from there the visitors fought back to take control.

Jacob Douglas and Curtis Sironen tries had them in front by half-time, but they dominated after the restart with 28 unanswered points and further scores from Jack Welsby (2), Joe Shorrocks and Jackson Hastings, who had a 20-point haul with eight kicks too.

The victory took Saints up two places in the table, level again with Wigan Warriors but with an inferior points difference.

Having faded after a good start, this was a third straight defeat for Bradford, who stay 11th in their first year back at this level.

This was Saints’ first visit to Odsal since 2014 and the home side responded to the sight of one of the great names of rugby league being back at this famous old ground.

It made for a very physical start following a hard-fought game at the Brewdog Stadium in March.

Hastings kicked an early goal for Saints, before Shane Wright was yellow-carded for a late hit on Chris Atkin.

With the Australian forward off for 10 minutes, Bradford scored 10 unanswered points, highlighted by Steinwede’s hard run into the line and a smart sidestep taking him over the line.

But that was the high point for the Bulls as the visitors turned the scoreline around with two tries in the space of seven minutes.

Winger Douglas finished well in the left corner to mark his debut with a try, coming in with injuries leaving a big hole in the backline.

Then second-rower Sironen, on his 100th St Helens appearance, proved unstoppable from close range as Paul Rowley’s side went in ahead at the break.

That advantage was extended within a few minutes of the restart as Welsby got his hand down to Hastings’ grubber kick before the ball went dead.

Shorrocks took advantage when his own little kick bounced up kindly to dive over. Hastings then grabbed a try of his own after Harry Robertson had parried down the Australian’s chipped kick to move the lead out to 20 points and effectively seal the success.

Welsby got his second and St Helens’ sixth try, but the match ended on a worrying note after a very serious-looking injury for Bradford forward Will Gardiner, who needed treatment on the field from both sets of medical teams before he was carried off on a stretcher.

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Sport:

“We were outstanding throughout the season, it’s nice now to be able to put a full stop on it with a big tin cup and say ‘we were the best side in the league’.

“I think it looked like a final.

“That was a proper final where it was nip and tuck, there were opportunities, we got held up, they got held up.

“We maybe weren’t as clinical as we’d have liked to have been, and that can certainly change the pressure.

“But I thought at 60 minutes to go we felt in a good space and the messages that were coming back to the coaching group from how the players were talking to each other and connecting was very positive.

“You bring on people like Callum Chick and Fraser Dingwall, who have been there before, and the last 20 minuets we looked very strong.”

Departing Northampton captain George Furbank told BBC Sport:

“I said to the boys I don’t really know how to feel after the final whistle.

“It was a mix of relief, happiness, sadness, all merged into one.

“It was a different feeling to the last time we won it – I think we’re going to have a good few days to celebrate and it’ll all sink in.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Sport:

“The first thing you have to do in a final is congratulate the opposition because otherwise when you just talk about yourself – it just feels like you’re critiquing and criticising yourself, and thinking these are the things we could have done.

“We had them deep into the game, under pressure, scores behind, they’ve kind of stuck with what they do.

“I’ll look back and I’ll go ‘we must have been pretty good because we forced two tries out of kicks through’, one where for whatever reason we don’t get our comms quite right and we actually just bump the ball out of our own hands into their hands for one try, and then the last try where they slide it through and it’s almost on a pinpoint.

“You look and go ‘well, we forced Northampton to score 12 points with two relatively speculative kicks through, that’s a pretty pretty good performance from us’.”

Northampton: Furbank (c); Freeman, Litchfield, Hutchinson, Hendy; Smith, McParland; Iyogun, Langdon, Millar Mills; Coles, Prowse, Kemeny, Pearson, Pollock.

Replacements: Wright, Fischetti, Green, Van der Mescht, Lockett, Chick, Mitchell, Dingwall.

Yellow card: Kemeny (51)

Exeter: Woodburn; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Ikitau, Ridl; Skinner, Varney; Sio, Norey, Iosefa-Scott; Jenkins (c), Zambonin, Hooper, Roots, Fisilau.

Replacements: Dweba, Burger, Tchumbadze, Tshiunza, Vintcent, James, Cairns, Haydon-Wood.

Yellow card: Jenkins (57)

Referee: Matthew Carley.

Northampton: Furbank, Freeman, Litchfield, Hutchinson, Hendy, Smith, McParland; Iyogun, Smith, Millar Mills, Coles, Prowse, Kemeny, Pollock, Chick

Replacements: Walker, Fischetti, Green, Van Der Mescht, Pearson, Graham, Mitchell, Dingwall

Bristol: Lane, Rees-Zammit, Janse van Rensburg, Williams, Ravouvou, Jordan, Randall; Genge, Thacker, Kloska, Dun, Batley, Owen, Harding (c), Grondona

Replacements: Gwilliam, Woolmore, Lahiff, Taylor, Ivanishvili, Marmion, Moroni, Heward

Referee: Luke Pearce