Handre Pollard ruled out of Rugby Champs, Willemse passed fit

The Springboks received good and bad news on Tuesday when it was revealed that flyhalf Handre Pollard had been ruled out of the Rugby Championship but Damian Willemse had been passed fit for the Southern Hemisphere competition.

Pollard and Willemse had both been injury worries heading into the tournament, necessitating the call-up of Elton Jantjies into the squad two weeks ago, and it has now been confirmed that Pollard would not be fit for the three Rugby Championship games, but Willemse will.

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“The only real concern to play in the Rugby Championship is Handre. He has a calf injury which he reinjured while playing for Leicester. We are always a bit more nervous with re-injuries,” explained SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus.

“That’s the reason why we have Elton here. So that Handre can fully recover and we don’t push him too early. Damian Willemse is all ready to go.

“When you only have two flyhalves here (in camp), you tend to put pressure on guys to be ready. So having an extra guy helps us at training especially, so we don’t have guys like Faf having to slot in at 10.”

Fit for World Cup

The management is not concerned that Pollard’s World Cup participation is in jeopardy and believe that he will be fit and ready to take part in one of the three warm up games that they have lined up before the showpiece event.

“The date for him (to return) is more or less similar to Siya (Kolisi) now. We are looking at either the Argentina (game in Buenos Aires), Wales or New Zealand Test matches that aren’t part of the Rugby Championship for them to come back,” said Erasmus.

With Pollard expected to be the Boks first choice flyhalf at the World Cup, coach Jacques Nienaber was asked if not having him available until a few games before the competition would set their planning back.

“No it doesn’t. We put out a basic game model and the players then adapt and evolve and apply their skillset to that. Obviously we must get used to the guy that’s playing there,” said Nienaber.

“The disruption is sort of the same as losing a guy like Siya. It is always first prize to have everyone fit and available to train but that is not the case (now) and we just have to work with that.

“We are fortunate with the squad that we have built over the past few years. There is good depth and quality in the majority of all the positions.”

The rest of the Bok squad seems to be all good on the injury front with Erasmus admitting that Eben Etzebeth and Jaden Hendrikse are both on target to return in the opening two games of the Rugby Championship, while everyone else is available for the Australian match.