South Africa coaching director Rassie Erasmus has tried to cool the Handre Pollard hype after missed kicks contributed to the Springboks’ loss to Ireland in their Pool B clash.
The Boks left 11 points missed from the tee in a 13-8 defeat that gave Ireland the inside running to top the group. Two misses each from Manie Libbok and Faf de Klerk have led to a fans’ clamour for the return of Pollard, who was added to the group late after recovering from injury.
“You have to see things in perspective. Handre Pollard is not Superman,” said Erasmus on Sunday.
“Four weeks ago he was totally not ready to play rugby. He hasn’t even run full pace four or five weeks ago.
“He has only played 40 minutes of rugby. He can’t just come on the field and do goal-kicking; he must tackle, pass, do kick-offs, sidestep, do hand-offs, clean out at the rucks.
(Photo by Clive Rose – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
“People think we didn’t pick Handre Pollard because we didn’t want to. That’s not the case. Handre was injured. He has only had 40 minutes of rugby and a week of training with us last week. This week will now be full-on contact where he doesn’t sit out a session. That’s why I said he wasn’t up for selection last week.”
Erasmus said Libbok added in areas beyond goal kicking.
“If you weigh up the different things Manie does… it is like Deon Fourie’s lineout throwing. I think he got four lineouts and one not straight, but the scrums went really well,” Erasmus said.
“Manie is obviously in a bit of a dip with his goal-kicking. He knows it, we know it, the world knows it, everybody keeps on talking about it. When Faf [de Klerk] took one kick from 55 metres, he hit the upright and we almost scored from it. Faf is a really good goal-kicker but he is not always going to be on the field.”
Erasmus said Pollard would likely play against Tonga this weekend.
“Handre is playing this weekend, but let’s see first of all how Handre does the other stuff in the game,” Erasmus said.
“Does he get through it on the contact side of things? I am sure he’ll also take some time to find his rhythm with his kicking under pressure. The Tonga one will be a great test for him as a yardstick to see where he is before we go – if we go – into those quarter-finals, and who will be on the field.
Handre Pollard (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
“Manie is certainly playing brilliant fly-half rugby at the moment, obviously his goal-kicking is not matching that at this stage.”
Erasmus was sanguine about the defeat.
“The negatives are that we were building nice momentum. Although we know the Tonga game will be a tough one, as the Scotland game will be for Ireland, that will probably determine who will be number one or two or three in the pool,” said Erasmus.
“I thought Scotland was always going to be a slippery game and it might be a tough one for Ireland as well, and so can Tonga be for us. Getting one [losing bonus] point out of the game is a bit of a positive, but losing the match is a negative.
“There were 11 points out there which we couldn’t kick. I don’t know how many teams have kept Ireland to 13 points, but it is the first time we haven’t scored double figures against them since way back. So it was a great tussle between the number one and two teams in the world. Now it is about focusing on the next game to see if we can get out of the pool.”
He rejected suggestions that the loss had added undue pressure on their campaign.
“Certain departments functioned very well against the number one team in the world, who had won 15 games in a row,” Erasmus said.
“We came within three points of them last year and this time it was five points. At the end we had an opportunity to snatch the match away but I think they deservedly won the game. You just want to get out of your pool. I think it would be brave to say you want France or New Zealand in the quarter-finals. We will let destiny decide that because they’re both formidable opponents.
“There’s no added pressure because the pressure was always to get out of this slippery pool. We will see how Scotland get on against Tonga later. But it doesn’t add pressure. It is nice to see how different combinations are working and things are starting to come together but there were two or three obvious departments [which didn’t work so well].”
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