RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesAn outspoken character like Eddie Hearn in English rugby union? It wasn’t likely to be long before the motormouth mind behind Matchroom said something to rankle the establishment.
When, last week, the promoter and talent agent was, in his words, “led down the path” of answering a question about Henry Pollock ’s salary in a newspaper interview, he did not expect his typically honest response to draw such scrutiny. Not that declaring his first client in the sport should be a million-pound man worked against Hearn – nor, indeed, Pollock.
THE ONE!☝️Welcome to the Team 21 year old England and Lions talent Henry Pollock - I watched this young man and thought SUPERSTAR! Then I met him, understood the passion, vision and desire and had to be a part of this journey. Sometimes someone special comes along that has all… pic.twitter.com/be6rflyMbJ
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) March 27, 2026 “I didn’t expect that interview to explode like it has, and it’s really down to Henry Pollock,” explains Hearn. “They asked me, ‘do you think it is fair what he is making at the moment?’ And I said, ‘no, I think it is outrageous’. He’s playing over 30 games a year, getting battered in every game, every training session, he’s got the whole rugby world trying to attack him on sight on the rugby pitch. Everybody is talking about him. He’s 21, he’s in the England team, he’s in the Lions team, he’s just won a championship. Every kid wants to be Henry Pollock, every kid wants to buy the Henry Pollock shirt, people are buying season tickets to watch him, buying TNT to watch him.”
Eddie Hearn says Henry Pollock is worth at least £1m a year (PA)
It’s worth pressing pause here to consider Hearn’s very involvement within the sport. By his own admission, the 47-year-old is no rugby fan; his first international match was Wales against Italy in the final round of the Six Nations in March. But something about Pollock captured him.
The Northampton and England back rower signed to Matchroom’s burgeoning talent agency soon after, with Bath and Scotland fly half Finn Russell then following suit. “Everyone is basically phoning me up at the moment going, ‘what’s your plan?’” Hearn says. “And I don’t know, to be honest. I just think Henry Pollock is great. And I think rugby is a sleeping giant.”
He may be new to this particular sporting world but Hearn, true to form, has plenty of thoughts. And he feels the genteel world of rugby union is in need of a shake-up. “Our history in changing sports is pretty much second to none,” he says of Matchroom, founded by his father Barry and overseer of booms in snooker, boxing and darts. “But we are not a bit-part player. We are not a consultancy. We’ll restructure it, we’ll remodel it, we’ll change it from grassroots, we’ll create a system to bring stars through.”
Hearn believes rugby is a 'sleeping giant' (Getty)
Hearn held initial talks about involvement within rugby league before recognising Pollock’s star potential. He is in regular contact with the “very smart” Simon Massie-Taylor , chief executive of Prem Rugby, and knows CVC Capital Partners, the investment firm that holds stakes in the English top flight and the Six Nations well. R360 has been in touch, too, despite delaying the launch of the Mike Tindall-fronted rebel league.
Fresh investment within rugby has been a theme of the last 12 months with the arrival of Red Bull at Newcastle, Black Knight at Exeter and James Dyson at Bath, and Hearn is certain that more will follow – if the sport allows them.
“I know, and Prem Rugby knows because they are talking to them, that there are a lot of people wanting to buy rugby clubs at the moment and put money in,” Hearn admits. “But not in its current infrastructure.
“The sport needs to be commercialised in a way that makes sense. The market is wrong, in my opinion. This whole thing about one marquee player [at each Prem club]… it’s so unambitious. People with money… Dyson, Red Bull, forget about them, American franchise investors – do you think they want to come and get involved in a sport where you can only have one star player? No, we want every star player.
Fresh investment has arrived in English rugby union within the last couple of years (Getty)
“People in rugby go, ‘oh, we can’t do that, it makes it unfair’. Well make it unfair. When you’ve got someone doing that, someone else will do that, and someone else will do that, and then Dyson or Red Bull will go, ‘here we go’. And then some billionaire will come in, and you begin to attract all of the best players from around the world to the Premiership.”
Hearn is fizzing now. Clearly, there is a personal motivation here – he is, of course, an agent – but there is a purer element, too.
“The problem with rugby is that grassroots has been dying because there has been no one that young kids can actually say, ‘yeah, I want to be like him’,” he explains. “Until Pollock came along, and others. We represent Finn Russell, but Fin Smith – guys I don’t represent but I think can be a star as well.
Hearn feels Fin Smith (centre) and Pollock are at the vanguard of rugby’s future (PA)
“Luke Littler has been a great example. The amount of young players we have coming into darts is unbelievable. [In rugby], players are not motivated to play the game, because you can’t make money. We are making seven figures for Henry Pollock off the pitch. He’s great, but when I first sat down and he told me the money he makes for Northampton and England, I couldn’t believe it.
“It has to be aspirational. Aspiration comes from championships, but it also comes from money. Let’s not kid ourselves. Young people want to make money. You can’t say that, ‘unfortunately, you can’t make any more money because we’ve got one bloke over here who is already on good money’. That’s ridiculous. You want as many players as possible on big money. If the clubs can’t afford it, let the big money and big owners come in to try and shake it up a little bit. You want someone ...
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