Nienaber urges fans to get real about Pollard return

Pollard's elevation into the South African first XV comes on the back of some atrocious goal-kicking by his colleagues

South Africa’s Handre Pollard before the game against Ireland

Jacques Nienaber has joined Rassie Erasmus in calling for both patience and a dose of realism from fans ahead of out-half Handre Pollard’s return to the Springbok line-up for the first time in over a year.

The 28-year-old missed the original South African squad with injury but was called up this month after an injury to Malcolm Marx and he starts the World Cup Pool B game against Tonga in Marseille this Sunday.

His elevation into the first XV comes on the back of some atrocious goal-kicking by his colleagues with Manie Libbok, Faf de Klerk and Damian Willemse missing 12 kicks between them in the team’s opening three matches.

The Boks missed 11 points off the tee in their five-point defeat to Ireland alone in Paris last weekend and Pollard’s boot was a major part of the successful 2019 campaign when the country won the tournament for a third time.

"What do I expect of him? A realistic performance,” said Nienaber. “I think that’s where we must all stay in the reality of it. He hasn’t played for the Boks in 13 months. He last played in the last week in August 2022 for the Springboks.

"He hasn’t played top-level rugby since the first week in May, which is 19 weeks ago. In saying that, he’s a quality rugby player and we all know that. He’s won a World Cup before, he’s won a British & Irish Lions series before.

"So he understands what international rugby and top international rugby is about, but I think we must stay real in that and give him time to settle in and get used to the pace of it."

Nienaber also pointed to Pollard’s recent injury profile as the reason for a 5/3 bench split just one week after opting for a 7/1 against Andy Farrell’s side. Should Pollard cramp or struggle fitness-wise they have Libbok to turn to on the bench.

Their kicking struggles have been a dominant theme throughout this World Cup but Nienaber continues to rail against this, pointing out that the Boks won 75% of the 16 games Pollard missed through injury.

"We lost four, and of the four test matches we lost, two were against Ireland, who are the number one team in the world and everybody is struggling against them. They haven’t lost a Test match since the one against New Zealand in Auckland.” 

South Africa also lost to New Zealand in Auckland this summer, and to France in Marseille last autumn when they finished with 14 men. Three of those four, Nienaber explained, had been very tight affairs, on the pitch and on the scoreboard.

“Yes, we are not consistent off the tee. But the guys that stepped in, I don’t think they did a bad job.” 

That's not a theory that holds any water but he doubled down on it by steering the debate away from the posts and towards other areas where, he believes, the Springboks fell short in that epic against Ireland.

“We had four opportunities within one metre of their goal-line, which we butchered. Four. That, for me, is a much bigger issue that we have to sort out. You can’t get yourself within one metre of Ireland’s try line and then you butcher four opportunities.”