Manie Libbok’s performance behind a dominant pack will have eased a lot of nerves among Springbok fans, yet there is still a compelling reason to get Handre Pollard to the Rugby World Cup as quickly as possible should there be an injury to another player.
That doesn’t mean Libbok, who has grown immeasurably as an international flyhalf in the short time he has worn the Bok No 10, should be dropped for Pollard. The role that Pollard could play might be at centre late in a game, where he will effectively bring the goalkicking insurance that veteran Morne Steyn did in the deciding minutes of the 2021 British and Irish Lions series.
This might explain why, as reported in the Sunday media a few weeks back, Pollard was training at centre before the squad’s departure for the World Cup.
Pollard is not in the squad that will arrive in France from a training camp in Corsica on Sunday, but coach Jacques Nienaber might have confused many people when at a press conference last week he spoke a lot about Pollard’s return to fitness.
READY TO PLAY AGAIN
He made it clear that Pollard is ready to play again should he be needed, and the way he spoke provided fuel to the conspiracy theorists who felt there was a cunning plan to somehow still have Pollard feature in France. But there is no subterfuge - the coach has always been clear that Pollard, once fully rehabilitated, could be called in if there is an injury elsewhere. And that could be an injury to anyone, including a forward.
Pollard kicked the clutch penalty that won the 2019 semifinal against Wales and you don’t need to look much further than that, and his calm and composed performance in the final against England, for an explanation as to why there was so much consternation among Bok fans when he wasn’t in the squad.
But the Libbok journey through the buildup to this World Cup has posed an interesting question. What happens if Pollard does get a gap to go to France? For while Libbok’s good place-kicking performance against the All Blacks brought temporary reprieve from the concerns about that aspect of his game, there’s never been any doubt that he can kick. The concern has been that he is erratic. And the word ‘erratic’, by its very definition, implies that he will have good days, like he did last Friday.
The problem is that when he has a bad day, they can be very bad. And could coincide with the most important game the Boks will play in this four year cycle. Even the Stormers coaches would probably admit they are never completely sure what they will get from Libbok from the kicking tee, and the kind of meltdown that effectively lost them a crucial home Vodacom United Rugby Championship game against Munster can happen at any time.
MORE RELIABLE FROM THE TEE
Pollard of course also has bad days. Even the finest do. But he doesn’t have bad days as regularly or as inopportunely as Libbok sometimes does. And he’s proved himself under the most intense pressure of all in the deciding phase or a World Cup. The nature of the game at Twickenham last week, where there was never really any scoreboard pressure, didn’t erase concerns about Libbok’s reliability in pressure kick situations.
But Pollard just walking into the starting team at No 10 if he ends up rejoining the squad is not the given it was a few weeks ago. Libbok has adapted well to being the Bok flyhalf in general play, and his field kicking against the All Blacks was sublime. His passing game is top drawer, and he brings more to the Bok attacking game than Pollard does.
HAD FLAIR COACHED OUT OF HIM
Indeed, it is possible to argue that at this point of their respective careers, Libbok might be a better rugby player than Pollard has become. Pollard was a precocious attacking talent when he first played for the Boks in 2014, taking the ball at the gainline and effectively setting up a drought breaking win over the All Blacks in Johannesburg with his shock value. But he had a lot of that flair subsequently coached out of him.
Admittedly it was behind a dominant pack, which always makes life a whole lot easier for a flyhalf, but Libbok played with such a combination of flair and calm in his first start against the All Blacks that it would make it hard to leave him out of the team now. Which cues the centre option.
He has played quite a bit of rugby there, and former All Black coach John Mitchell, who coached him at the Bulls, is one who has stated that No 12 might well be his best position. That doesn’t mean that incumbent Damian de Allende and the excellent Andre Esterhuizen need to be looking over their shoulders, it may just mean that they will have to either make way or change position in the last quarter of any game that is going to the wire.
Just so that Pollard can be on hand to kick the decisive points should it be necessary because Libbok has gone walkabout with his kicking from the tee. It wouldn’t be the first time the Boks have accommodated goal kicking insurance by shuffling the cards at the back. A few years ago Pollard, having an iffish day with the boot, moved to centre in the last quarter of a close game against the All Blacks.
And surely it hasn’t been forgotten that it was Steyn, and not Pollard, who kicked a not altogether straightforward penalty to win the series against the Lions. Steyn had been included in the squad precisely to fulfil that kind of pressure kick role. If Pollard does get to the World Cup, don’t bet against him replicating the Steyn role - but from a position other than pivot.