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South African fans turn on flyhalf Handre Pollard after disastrous opening World Cup game
As the all-time greatest 10 Dan Carter ranked his top three first-fives in the world last week, many South Africans felt aggrieved that their own favourite 10 wasn’t mentioned by the former All Black.
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Many South African fans rated Pollard the ‘form 10 in the world right now’ heading into the Rugby World Cup following the Springboks first ever Rugby Championship success.
Definitely got me even more excited for the world cup. Hopefully Handre Pollard will be the Perfect 10 this world cup and get his own redemption 😊
— Wasim (@wasimebrahim) September 19, 2019
English press didn’t even include Pollard in the top 5 fly halves of the World Cup. Hopefully today he can show them how wrong they are. Easily the most important player in our side. Time for him to live up to his potential.
— Dean Oelschig (@DeanOelsch) September 21, 2019
Following a disastrous opening World Cup game by many Springboks, including Pollard who had six turnovers, the tide of opinion even amongst Bok supporters has swung.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2sWaKiIF7I/
Pollard was even labeled by some as ‘the All Blacks best player on the pitch’ as he missed a sitter of a penalty goal, committed way too many handling errors and on three occasions wasn’t in a position to receive the pass from his teammate forcing his side to scramble.
His performance was described as a ‘shocker’ that ‘single-handedly’ cost the game, ranked even below that of Jerome Garces by one fan. Garces was lambasted in a social media video by South African fans that compiled all his supposed refereeing mistakes.
https://twitter.com/tandobikitsha/status/1175355314004254720
Handre Pollard single handedly costing us the game #NZLvRSA #SSRugby
— K T (@AupaRamane) September 21, 2019
Handré Pollard is in the depths of a waking nightmare. That's at least his third bad handling error in the first 25 minutes. New Zealand are almost out of reach already.
— Jonathan O'Brien (@obrien_jonathan) September 21, 2019
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Ranking of performances in that game:
1. Cheslin Kolbe
2. Beauden Barrett
3. Ardie Savea
4. PSdT
5. The rest of the All Blacks
6. Jerome Garces
7. The rest of the Springboks
8. Handre Pollard
9. Willie le Roux.— Alex Tarr (@alexthetarr) September 21, 2019
Handre pollard is the all blacks best player on the pitch.
— sphez (@Agorian4lyf) September 21, 2019
https://twitter.com/marty_R200/status/1175351529722789888
https://twitter.com/jmkazhila/status/1175354029616050176
https://twitter.com/owasendle/status/1175356524727865344
Where are our Springboks? The team playing now are terrible.. hope they do better second half🤬 Faf de Klerk, willie le roux and Handre Pollard playing a bad game
— Christa (@christakapp1963) September 21, 2019
Poor Game plan, School boy mistakes, one dimensional, Mistakes mistakes mistakes and mistakes. We playing off 9 too much that, handrè Pollard does nothing other than kicking off tee#NZLvRSA
— Mandisi (@Mesuliya) September 21, 2019
The Springboks struggled under the high ball as Aaron Smith’s box kicks rained down on Yokohama Stadium, creating unstructured play in the hot humid conditions.
The All Blacks two tries came off the back of two spilled box kicks, using the second possession to open up the South Africans. After the game, Pollard said it’s the small details the side has to get better at.
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“It’s not panic stations, its very calm. We’ve still got the confidence in the group and coaching staff. It’s those small details we’ve got to be better at,” he said.
“They (New Zealand) are for me arguably the best team in the world, and if you don’t have everything set in place every single time that’s what they are going to do to you.”
The Springboks may get another chance to avenge the loss to the All Blacks, as will Pollard to redeem himself but for now perhaps the South African fans would be wise to listen to Dan Carter when it comes to ranking flyhalves.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Both nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
1 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to comments