This was a column I wrote for my blog on October 29 2023:
“Handré Pollard proved that form is temporary, but that class is permanent. Appreciate this guy, South Africa. Love him, respect him and thank him. Just hold him.
“The Springboks are world champions today and for the next four years because Handré Pollard did not miss a kick at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“Pollard kicked four from four, just like he did against Tonga in the final Pool match. He never missed, just like he did in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final.
“Pieter-Steph du Toit made 28 tackles in the final, Deon Fourie played for 77 minutes as a hooker. This is a guy who is 37 years-old and has played most of his career as a flanker.
“Pick them, the Bok heroes of Saturday night. You won’t be wrong.
“The Boks won 12-11 against a team that played 60 minutes with 14 players and against a team in which there was never approval for the captain and coach. Somehow the Boks won, but they won because Pollard never missed and between them Richie Mo’unga and Jordie Barrett, the Kiwi kicking duo, missed with a conversion and a penalty.
“The margins in the greatest contests are always as fine as ‘you hit and I miss.’ Our guy hit. New Zealand’s duo missed.
“The Boks have played in four finals and won four. The All Blacks have played in five and won three. The two they lost were against the Boks, in 1995 and in 2023.
“It took 28 years for these two nations to meet in a World Cup final and it was no less dramatic. The Boks could not score a try, but with Pollard there they did not have to.
“One three pointer has separated cheers and jeers with the Boks against the All Blacks since 2018. Pollard is that three pointer.”
The Boks will win on Saturday in an arm wrestle and I believe they will win at Eden Park in Auckland for the first time since 1937 on September 6.
Pollard starts in Cape Town on Saturday. A few months ago, so many in South African rugby were ready to put the back-to-back World Cup winner out to pasture because he was perceived as not being able to play Tony Brown’s new attacking game that looks so easy on the eye for 30 minutes but has never been measured against World Cup titles.
Manie, Sacha FM and even that oke who plays for the Griffons. Anybody but Pollard, said so many on social media.
No, no-one but Pollard, with Sacha FM to provide the punch off the bench.
The Boks will win against Australia on Saturday in an arm wrestle and I believe they will win at Eden Park in Auckland for the first time since 1937 on September 6.
Why?
Pollard is the greatest Springbok flyhalf and without the two-time World Cup winner, documentaries like Chasing the Sun would not exist.
The greats are defined by how they perform in the biggest moments on the biggest stage. Pollard, for the Springboks at World Cups, has done it more than any other No 10 in the history of the Springboks.
If the World Cup is the Holy Grail in the professional age, then Pollard’s performances in the 2019 World Cup playoffs and 2023 World Cup playoffs makes him South Africa’s greatest No 10.
It is why his presence on Saturday must give you confidence that the Boks will win at home against Australia. It is also why the lesson is to love and say thanks to the likes of Pollard, who has done it so often, and not dismiss him for the romance of those who have never done it.
In Pollard I trust.
Trust me.
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