Henry Pollock called 'frightening' by Danny Care as Northampton Saints reach PREM final by seeing off Leicester Tigers in derby

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Danny Care described Northampton Saints star Henry Pollock as "frightening" after Northampton saw off East Midlands rivals Leicester Tigers in an absorbing contest to reach the PREM final.

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Northampton battled to a 45-31 victory on Friday night and will play in the Twickenham showpiece next weekend.

And the inspirational Pollock had plenty of praise ringing in his ears after the match.

TNT Sports pundit Care said: "He was frightening. Obviously Henry Pollock gets all the plaudits for the flashy stuff, the offloads, the celebrations, but 26 carries in an east Midlands derby.

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"And he was running into brick wall after brick wall. Dows [Saints' director of rugby Phil Dowson] must be so proud of him [for] that performance tonight."

Dowson did indeed also hail Pollock after the game, telling TNT Sports: "You can see how super confident he is from his whole career.

"I spoke to him during the week and he said, 'I need to focus more on my game. I need to have more of a focus on what I can do, as opposed to let them put me off.'

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"The biggest ability Henry has, a bit like Courtney Lawes, is the ability to learn and improve from experiences.

"That's what really impresses me, how fast he picks stuff up."

Dowson also reflected on his team's hard-fought win overall, with captain George Furbank scoring two tries in his final home game for the Saints.

"Massive relief," Dowson said. "I think you spend all season trying to get your processes right, you get the opportunity and the pressure is on.

Henry Pollock in action for Northampton against Leicester on Friday night

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"We're playing against a side that we had a tough experience against a month ago. I thought we started a bit slowly, but once we found our feet we found some of that rhythm.

"We keep reminding ourselves, if you said at the start of the season, what is it you want, this is what we wanted, so you've got to enjoy that.

"These are the weeks you dream of, and you've got to make sure you enjoy that. We feel the pressure, but we don't respond too heavily to that pressure.

"Today was a special occasion. Lots of our performance was very good. From a defensive point of view, from a discipline point of view, we need to be better.

"But we want to be excited about this week. You spend a lot of time on the side of a mountain, you want to enjoy it when you're near the top as well."

The second PREM semi-final on Saturday, between Bath and Exeter, is live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.

Northampton are looking to repeat their title triumph of 2024, completing a superb turnaround from last season when they finished eighth in the table.

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