Special Pollard a man for the big occasion as Boks make final: ‘Unbelievable’

Springbok flyhalf Handre Pollard truly is a man for the big occasions after he stunningly kept his nerve for the second week running to kick the Boks to a tight 16-15 win over England in their Rugby World Cup semifinal at the Stade de France on Saturday night.

It has been a remarkable return to stardom for Pollard, who since starring for the Boks at the 2019 World Cup in Japan, has not been able to reach those heights again while battling through a number of injuries and trying to regain his form.

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He missed out on selection for this year’s World Cup because of injury, snuck in as an injury replacement for Malcolm Marx, and has now played two massive roles in getting the Boks to another final.

Against France a week ago it was a 52m penalty that pushed the Boks into a four point lead against the tournament hosts and ultimately proved the difference in a one point win.

This weekend it was a 48m effort from just inside his own half in the 77^th minute that sailed through the uprights and gave the Boks the lead for the first time in the game and ultimately the win.

What is even more incredible is that Pollard started on the bench and was introduced as early as the 30^th minute, for the unfortunate Manie Libbok, who didn’t really do anything wrong; it was just that the game was more tailored to Pollard’s style of play.

Brave call

That brave call from the Bok management was then fully vindicated as he went on to put in a man-of-the-match performance over the next 50 minutes.

After the game Pollard was just relieved that they were able to sneak away with a win having been second best for most of the contest.

“It’s unbelievable, there’s a lot of relief at this moment. I’m frustrated we weren’t at our best tonight, especially in that first half,” said Pollard.

“We knew we had so much more to give but fair play to England, I think they put us under pressure in exactly the right areas. But jeez the fight we showed never giving up, it is what we stand for as a team and as a nation.

“We stuck to our plan we just had to execute a bit better here and there. We took it play-by-play, minute-by-minute, you can’t look too far into the future in these kind of games. It took us a long time but we got it done.”

Deciding moments

The two deciding moments in the game came in the final 12 minutes, with the Boks trailing by nine points at that time when two huge scrum penalties allowed Pollard to weave his magic.

The first one allowed him to kick a perfect penalty to touch from near the halfway almost onto the English 5m line, with the Boks securing the lineout and lock RG Snyman crashing over to score, with Pollard’s conversion making it a two point game going into the final 10 minutes.

The second was then his brilliant penalty from close to halfway with three minutes remaining as he once again showed he had ice in his veins to be a man for the big moments.

“Firstly the scrum penalty, that is what got us the opportunity. It was just a credit to them, they were unbelievable. It was a big moment but it is what you want as a player on this stage, to have moments like that as a flyhalf is what you live for. It was fun,” said Pollard.