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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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Flankly 0 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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