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Handre Pollard's departure from South African rugby will hopefully see him realise his potential

Handre Pollard was a part of South Africa's golden under-20 crop. (Photos/Gettys Images)

The announcement confirming Bulls flyhalf Handre Pollard has signed a three-year deal with Top 14 club Montpellier brings to an end a 6-year career in South Africa. While his Springbok career will continue, his domestic career will not, ending his time at the Bulls for the foreseeable future.

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For a long time, Pollard symbolised the hope of South Africa’s next generation. As a member of three under-20 World Championships, a fresh-faced Pollard piloted the Junior Boks to a maiden under-20 title in front of a home crowd in 2012. The Western Cape junior slotted a 45-metre drop goal to push his side out to a 4-point lead at Newlands before a Jan Serfontein try sent the crowd into raptures with a defining 22-16 victory over New Zealand.

The Junior Boks would go on to win four straight under-20 fixtures over New Zealand during Pollard’s three campaigns, including a pool stage win and a semi-final win over New Zealand in the Baby Blacks’ own backyard in 2014.

Often such a young player at the beginning of his career remains relatively unknown outside of his own country, but Pollard was a rare exception and certainly had caught the attention of rugby fans in New Zealand after becoming the leader of a side that consistently tormented the Baby Blacks.

Thoughts were forming that this flyhalf could become the greatest Springbok 10 ever seen. As ridiculous as that assertion could be, there were things about Pollard’s game that aren’t typically found in South African flyhalves that appealed to the New Zealand public who were wowed by his under-20 showings.

He showed the kind of creativity and vision that special playmakers possess, the ability to see opportunities others can’t, the confidence to take them and the skills to make it happen.

The kind of talent that is certainly revered and held in high-regard in New Zealand, which sees the likes of Beauden Barrett, Damian McKenzie and Richie Mo’unga as highly valued assets where other countries fear their risk-taking tendencies.

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He was thrust into Heyneke Meyer’s Springboks side as a 20-year-old and immediately took to test rugby as the anointed 10 during the Rugby Championship. In his sixth test, and first on home soil against the All Blacks, he scored two tries taking on the line without fear.

His first try was scored gliding through Joe Moody and Sam Whitelock using speed to beat the prop on the outside while his second was a charge directly at Aaron Smith pressuring Richie McCaw’s inside cover off a wheeled scrum. He barreled over in the arms of the All Black legend.

The Springboks secured a 27-25 win on a long-range Pat Lambie penalty, which ended a 22-match winning streak for the All Blacks and propelled Pollard to stardom. He became central to the Springboks 2015 Rugby World Cup plans and came a whisker away from a World Cup final.

Since that rocket-fuelled start, this World Cup cycle hasn’t seen Pollard’s career continue that trajectory.

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South African rugby has undergone structural changes with transformation targets and a disastrous fall under Alistair Coetzee. His career stalled in 2016 with a long-term injury layoff while the Bulls tried to re-build under the guidance of John Mitchell’s corporate management-style leadership in 2018.

At the same time, the game changed with improved levels of conditioning tightening up defences, forcing attacking play to become far more detailed and organised to create space, foreign to the traditional Springbok way.

South African and Australian rugby got left behind to some extent, with both countries experiencing dramatic falls in the world rankings. The Springboks last win over the All Blacks before last year’s thriller in Wellington was that tight 2014 finish in Johannesburg.

Pollard’s ability is unquestionable but he is not heading to Montpellier as the finished product. South African rugby has failed to unlock Pollard’s full potential since the last World Cup. The only title-winning coach he has had time under was a brief dalliance at the Springboks with the architect of the first Bulls dynasty, Heyneke Meyer, from 2014-15.

With Rassie Erasmus’ grand changes to selection policy, Pollard is not lost to the Springboks. However, the next phase of his development will be overseen by a French club that will certainly demand a return on their investment, a different kind of pressure Pollard will face. The resources at Montpellier are far better than those at the Bulls, but the club is also going through struggles.

They finished third on the league table in 2017 and first overall in 2018 before being eventual runners-up but this year dropped to seventh in Top 14 and failed to qualify for next year’s Champions Cup. They lost attack coach Scott Wisemantel to England’s staff before this season while head coach Vern Cotter has now been moved into an oversight role as a Director of Rugby with La Rochelle’s assistant coach Xavier Garbajosa coming in as his replacement on a four-year contract. Aaron Cruden also remains contracted for another season as well as Johan Goosen, which seems like an overcrowded positional group as it stands.

Although Pollard’s new environment may have some degree of uncertainty, the change of scenery will perhaps also see him grow off the pitch, offering a different perspective on the game and life outside of South Africa. The success of overseas-based players like Faf de Klerk, Willie le Roux and Cheslin Kolbe proves that Europe can elevate the play of South African players.

The current conversation for the world’s best 10 includes Beauden Barrett, Richie Mo’unga, Jonathan Sexton and Owen Farrell. If Pollard is to realise his potential and be in that conversation by the next World Cup, he needs to go somewhere different. With a number of other Springbok departures confirmed for the Bulls, staying would only bring more frustration as a complete re-build of the roster is required.

Time will tell whether Montpellier is the right destination, but the change is necessary even if it hurts the Bulls and their fans to see him go.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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