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Handre Pollard called up to South Africa World Cup squad
By Josh Raisey
South Africa’s 2019 World Cup winning fly-half Handre Pollard has been called up to Jacques Nienaber’s current squad as a replacement for the injured Malcolm Marx.
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Pollard was one of the surprising omissions from the initial squad, but he has been hampered by a calf injury in recent months. But after hooker Marx suffered a World Cup ending knee injury last week, the discussion arose as to who should be called up as his replacement.
Nienaber has opted for Pollard, which leaves the Springboks with only one specialist hooker in the squad, Bongi Nbonambi. He started in the Springboks’ handsome 76-0 win over Romania, while flanker/ hooker Deon Fourie deputised on the bench. That looks as though it will be the format for the rest of the World Cup for the reigning champions.
After running out for Leicester Tigers on Friday, Pollard will team up with his national teammates on Monday in Paris ahead of their titanic clash against Ireland at the Stade de France at the weekend.
Nienaber said: “We are confident with the cover we have at hooker with Bongi Mbonambi and Deon Fourie, and Marco van Staden has been slotting in the position since our alignment camps in February, so we opted to call up Handre, who has been in our system for years and who was a member of our team in 2019 when we won the World Cup.
“He’s been working hard to return to full fitness, and we are pleased that he now has some game time under his belt for his club, and this will allow him to slot back into the team.
“We’ll work closely with him in the next week to get him back up to speed and back into the full swing of things, and we have no doubt he’ll step up to the challenge. He’s been here before so he knows the physical and mental demands of the World Cup.”
Think we all expected it, we can't go into a play off with either France or the All Black with a 60% coal kicker I wish Manie can get his % kicks up because I love the guys he is exciting and has a lot of flair, but unfortunately these play off games comes down to a penalty or a drop goal that is how tight it is. I will play Pollard of the bench this weekend and start with Manie Lebok.
Bit of a no-brainer, really, after Brannas and Van Stagden showed that they can step up in Marx's absence.
In Pollard, the Boks have a RWC and TRC winner. He kicked 8 out of 10 in the 2019 RWC final and, along with the bomb squad, pretty much put paid to England's feeble efforts. The tries by Mapimpi and Kolbe were just icing on the cake.
Pollard, Manie and Willemse offer the Boks a wonderful variety of possibilities to play the complete game.
Let the good times roll.
Bit of a no-brainer, really, after Brannas and Van Stagden showed that they can step up in Marx's absence.
In Pollard, the Boks have a RWC and TRC winner. He kicked 8 out of 10 in the 2019 RWC final and, along with the bomb squad, pretty much put paid to England's feeble efforts. The tries by Mapimpi and Kolbe were just icing on the cake.
Pollard, Manie and Willemse offer the Boks a wonderful variety of possibilities to play the complete game.
Let the good times roll.
Shock 🤣