Comment: Choosing to leave Handre Pollard’s skillset, experience and big match temperament on the sidelines was a big Springboks mistake
Handre Pollard was absent on Saturday when Pieter-Steph du Toit, inset, led the Springboks to defeat versus the All Blacks
On the eve of a first Test which went so spectacularly wrong for South Africa, Joel Stransky paused to ponder Rassie Erasmus’ options at fly-half.
The legendary Springbok 10 was being asked to perm two from three and he thought long and hard. To pick Sacha, Manie or Handre? That was the question. Stransky agreed that, talent-wise, Feinberg-Mngomezulu “is the best we have”. He praised the “silky, slick running” game of Libbok.
He thought Erasmus would go with that duo, and said as much. But he was not at peace with the idea of his country taking on their Greatest Rival without the qualities of Pollard. “Handre offers something the other two maybe don’t really have or don’t really understand,” he said.
“The backs’ fluidity is not quite the same when he’s there. But what he has is that sensible old head. He knows how to close a game out. He knows how to play the space and territory game. He knows how to trap the opposition inside their 30, 40-metre zone so they’ve got to go the full distance to score points and go and win games.”
Most damning evidence
How the Boks needed that sensible old head at Ellis Park where they bullied New Zealand at the set-piece and somehow managed to lose by five tries to one. They led 16-12 in the third quarter, won seven set-piece penalties, five at scrum time and, in Jasper Wiese and Malcolm Marx, had two absolute workhorses.
Yet South Africa were all brawn and no brain. All power and nowhere near enough skill. On a momentous evening on the Highveld, the game intelligence came dressed in black. Erasmus won’t need anyone telling him now what a difference Pollard would have made. That much is obvious. The question is why he chose to go without him given what he already knew without this most damning evidence.
Only a fortnight ago in Buenos Aires, the 32-year-old saved the Boks’ bacon with his cool head in the final quarter. Before that, in Cape Town last year, the Bulls pivot was restored to a side humiliated by Australia the week before and responded with a match-winning performance.
Of course Erasmus has an eye on next year’s Rugby World Cup, when Pollard will be pushing 34. Of course getting the insanely talented Feinberg-Mngomezulu to that tournament at the peak of his powers is a priority.
But in the here and now, in a series as big as this, in a first Test always likely to be suffocatingly tight, choosing to leave a player with Pollard’s skillset, experience and big match temperament on the sidelines was a mistake. One that cost the hosts, big time.
“You have to have Pollard on the bench to come on in case it’s not going right 100 per cent,” Anthony Watson, ex-England and a former teammate at Leicester, warned last week. “[South Africa’s other fly-halves] are quite like-for-like, but Handre brings a completely different level of calm and pragmatism that everyone else around still can switch into, because that whole backline is so experienced and so used to playing with Handre that it’s easy to switch mindsets.”
Without Handre the ‘facilitator’, the green and gold attack lacked rhythm and cohesion. It was disorganised and blunt. Ten visits to the New Zealand 22, only two of which moved the scoreboard; a dreadful 0.9 points per entry. Contrast that with the All Blacks plundering five tries from eight entries, bringing to mind what Nick Evans, the former AB, told Planet Rugby in the build-up.
He said he liked the chances of this New Zealand side because it had shown “it can really open up teams in unstructured moments”. Prophetic words. The rugby intelligence of Dave Rennie’s tourists dwarfed that of their hosts, which is not a charge often, if ever, levelled at an Erasmus team.
And while it might have been Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s first loss as a starting Springbok 10, it was a chastening one. The last time the Boks hurt this much on a Sunday was a year ago, also in Johannesburg. On that occasion they took a 22-0 against Australia only to then concede 38 unanswered points and cop a first home loss since 2011 to the Wallabies.
So bruising an experience was it that their coach took a phone call from his mum checking he was alright. “You know when your mum sends you a message to say, ‘My kid, I still love you’, things aren’t lekker!”
Erasmus’ response then was to summon Pollard, who kicked 15 points to win the return match a week later before acknowledging: “Sometimes it’s just about getting back on the horse.”
The same applies now. Another loss and the most eagerly anticipated rugby series of the year will be over in the space of eight days. Even a Boks win would leave them needing to add the third and fourth Tests to take the series.
Springbok fans will console themselves that their team has not lost successive Tests for four years. But history alone won’t save them against this class of opponent. The All Blacks are reborn under Rennie, who has won all seven matches since taking charge in March. They are well drilled, focused, razor sharp.
Rennie’s instincts are spot on too. He saw no risk in giving Will Jordan and Cam Roigard their first game of the tour. Nor in restoring Damian McKenzie after injury against the Sharks. Each more than repaid the faith.
While New Zealand remain in Johannesburg to face the Lions on Tuesday, also at Ellis Park, the Boks fly south to prepare for the second Test in Cape Town. No game in which to iron out creases, only the training field.
“We have been in many catastrophic situations in our lives,” said Erasmus. “We lost the first Test against the British & Irish Lions [in 2021] and everyone said it was a catastrophe. We lost the first pool game against New Zealand in the World Cup [in 2019] and everyone said that was catastrophic, so we have been in a lot of catastrophic situations.
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“I wouldn’t say [this] is catastrophic because there is a way out, and that’s winning three matches on the trot. [But] we were thoroughly beaten by a team that is now No 1 in the world. It’ll be nice to go into the next game as the underdogs!”
Erasmus cracked a smile as he said that. Don’t expect too many more of those in the days ahead.
