No panic at all. Handre Pollard may have had a horror day with the boot, not to mention the yellow card that almost cost his Bulls side in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinals last weekend, but he has backed himself to be a deadshot come next Friday’s final in Dublin against Leinster.
Pollard isn’t a stranger to pressure, of course, and we all recall his accuracy in getting the Springboks over the line at the Rugby World Cup with three one-point wins to claim the Webb Ellis trophy, but his Bulls side have never won the URC.
Friday will be their fourth final in five years, losing three with former coach Jake White and now Johan Ackermann has taken them to a fourth in his first season in charge.
But despite the yellow and a number of kicks missed in the semifinal that eventually saw the Bulls come back from 21-3 down to win by a point, Pollard reckons it will all come right this coming weekend.
POLLARD WILL RESET
“Absolutely, I was terrible last weekend with the kicking. But you have those days and you’ve got to be able to put it aside and see it for what it is,” he smiled.
“I’d like to think I’ve had more good days than bad days in terms of kicking during my career, so I’ve been there before.
“As frustrating and disappointing as it was, I know what to do to reset.”
Pollard isn’t one to overdo the kicking tee on the training field either, but looks rather for rhythm as he prepares for the final next weekend.
“I’m not one of those guys who kicks for hours. In any case, I’m older now and have to look after my body. But seriously, I am more of a rhythm guy than a tough task master. When I feel I have the rhythm in training, I will stop.
“You go back to your normal routine, the system that you know works for you, and you get back into the groove,” he explained.
HASN’T DENTED CONFIDENCE
And as he says, he has another chance to erase that performance if he kicks the Bulls to a win against Leinster, a game in which they will start as underdogs against the defending champions.
“The nice thing about rugby is you get another opportunity a week later, so I’m excited for the next opportunity. I’m not a guy with fragile confidence. For me, kicking is not a confidence thing at all. Each kick is just what it is – it’s a kick.
“I had a good look back afterwards, and there were one or two small technical tweaks that I picked up, which I can fix pretty quickly. It’s nothing major.
“I trust my process. It’s worked for me in the past, and I’m sure it’ll work again.”
Pollard added that the confidence in the group is high and while they may be seen as underdogs, they certainly weren’t heading to Dublin just to compete.
“We’ve come out of so many holes as a group this season, and then even though we were down 21-3 in the semifinal against the Glasgow Warriors, we looked each other in the eye and said we can turn this around. That’s a great character to have in a squad.
“When it’s going too well you don’t necessarily always get the opportunity to build that character. If we need it again in the final, then we’ve been there before and we trust ourselves to get ourselves out of it again. I think that’s a very good characteristic that we have in this team.”
BULLS KNOW THEY HAVE A CHANCE
And that means the hard work doesn’t stop. It’s another 80 minutes on Friday and the team didn’t go through all of this just to let it go now.
“This year we had to work really hard to get where we are. In our heads we feel we’ve worked extremely hard. We’re going to go out there and just do that again. If the cards don’t fall our way, then that’s rugby. But we’ve worked really hard to get ourselves here.
"After that tough time in the season we got clarity in the way we wanted to play the game, and that has shown in the last few games of the season. It’s very special for us to be in the Grand Final and we’re just excited to have this opportunity.
“A lot of the guys have been here before, and we’ve had some disappointments in finals. But it’s a real positive I think. From where we came from at the start of the season to where we are is special, and we want to take that confidence into the final.”
LEINSTER WILL BE UNDER PRESSURE TOO
Leinster will be under pressure as well, and the final winner will be the one who handles that the best. But while Leinster are good, the Bulls know they need a good start to the game.
“There will be a lot of emotion from both sides. It should be that way. A final brings a different intensity. But we also need to control that. We need to use that energy but at the same time control our minds.
"We’re not dwelling on the past. We’re excited to have another opportunity. But you’ve got to enjoy the moment. The season is long and you work so hard to get to this point, so you need to enjoy it.
“Leinster do so many things well, and Jamison Gibson-Park’s kicking game off nine is probably the best in the world. That’s a big factor. There are threats all over.
"At this stage of the season, you can focus on the opposition, but if you don’t do what you do well, it won’t matter at all. It’s up to us to come out with the right intent and be accurate in those first 20 minutes.”
The Bulls will depart for Ireland on Monday night.