‘We showed a lot of character to beat Scotland,’ says Handré Pollard
· Citizen
Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard showed that there is still plenty left in the old tank with a man-of-the-match performance in their 42-28 Nations Championship win over Scotland at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.
Pollard went into the match under pressure, after a coupe of poor performances for the Bulls during their URC end-of-season run-in, which led to many questioning whether he should still be among the Boks’ first choice flyhalves.
Visit aportal.club for more information.
But Pollard proved it was just a blip, as he produced a strong all-round showing.
He started at flyhalf, left the action early in the second half, but was soon back on the field in a rejigged backline after Ethan Hooker went off with a head knock, and he played inside centre the rest of the game.
His presence around rookie utility back Quan Horn, who is still getting to grips with playing flyhalf, likely helped the regular Lions fullback put in an assured second half showing, while he also made a superb grubber assist late in the match for Jesse Kriel to seal the result.
“It was very tough. We knew it was going to be a big challenge, Scotland is a very good side, and they are very good at set piece time.
“They had us under the pump at big periods of the game, but I thought we showed a lot of character, particularly in that third quarter,” said Pollard in an on-field television interview after the match.
“We let them back in which was disappointing, but we got through it. They are a quality side and really good with ball in hand.
“Defensively we were pretty disappointing in those periods (in the second and fourth quarters), so that is a big work-on for us, but we are still happy with the result.”
Pleasing win
The Boks will be particularly pleased with the win over a very experienced and strong Scotland side, especially as their match 23 was relatively inexperienced, with 12 players having 10 caps or less, and that led to a bit of a disjointed performance on defence that allowed the Scots to score four tries.
“It does (inexperience) impact the team. But that is just how things work in this team. We slot in, try new combinations, and build squad depth,” explained Pollard.
“That’s what we do. This was a great experience for a lot of guys who haven’t played a lot of Test matches. To play against quality opposition in this atmosphere at Loftus is pretty incredible (for them).”
The Boks now turn their attention to their final Nations Championship match of the July window, against Wales at Kings Park in Durban, this coming weekend.
They will be looking to clinch another good win, before looking ahead to a one-off Test against Argentina in early August, and then Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks which kicks off in late August.