Back in August, Handre Pollard was one of the shock omissions from the Springboks’ original World Cup squad after he was deemed to be lacking the necessary fitness due to a calf injury.
However, he returned to full fitness soon after the Springboks headed to France, and he was then selected as the player to call up after an unfortunate injury to hooker Malcolm Marx.
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Pollard will now return to the No 10 jersey for this Sunday’s clash against Tonga in what will be his first appearance for the Springboks since August last year following calf and knee injuries.
He’s return to the No 10 jersey was fast-tracked by the Springboks’ kicking woes, all of Manie Libbok, Damian Willemse and Faf de Klerk struggling to find form off the kicking tee so far at the Rugby World Cup.
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POLLY CONFIDENT SPRINGBOKS CAN TURN KICKING WOES AROUND
But Pollard is confident of the kicking group in the Springbok team and is adamant that they’ll come good in the playoffs.
“Kicking is of course the hot topic at the moment, but I see how the guys work every single day at their craft,” he said in an interview with SuperSport. “We’ve all seen them kick 100% games in the past, so they’ve all got it in them.”
“We as a kicking unit just gotta stick together within this time and get through this. It can change overnight, I firmly belief because I know those guys and myself had done it in the past.
“So it’s a big part of the game yes, when it comes to playoffs or big Test matches, but we can’t just judge the players on that. There’s a lot more to it and I think the guys that has been in those positions have really been playing well.
“I think that’s just a something small, it’s a small tweak here or there that will put them right back on track and hopefully I can assist in that way, taking some pressure off them this weekend, but you never know what’s gonna happen, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
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WATCH THE POLLARD INTERVIEW HERE
https://www.tiktok.com/@supersportofficial/video/7284498545099558149
