Handre Pollard sends timely reminder to Bok rival Manie Libbok
South Africa and Leicester Tigers fans were given some good news yesterday as fly-half Handre Pollard was filmed training at Leicester’s Oval Park training ground.
The video showed the 29-year-old successfully kicking for goal from the touchline, which might actually be more important than many think.
Pollard missed out on Jacques Nienaber’s World Cup squad earlier this month and since then plenty of fans have been fearing how the Boks will fare in their title defence without their first choice No10. Manie Libbok is the only outright No10 in the Bok squad, and his kicking percentage was an area of concern for many fans.
But that all changed on Friday at Twickenham as Libbok steered his side to the All Blacks’ biggest ever defeat with 100 percent kicking success. Since then, the fears about heading into the World Cup with Libbok have dissipated a bit in the Springbok fandom.
It is for that exact reason that Pollard had to send a timely reminder to all fans out there not only that he is fit, but his goal kicking is still as good as ever. The Tigers No10 will still hope to play some part in the World Cup despite not being picked initially, and plenty of fans and pundits believe he will be shoehorned into the squad in due course. But following Libbok’s display in London there is not such a sense of urgency to get the 2019 World Cup winner into the squad.
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Though it was believed Pollard was out of South Africa’s World Cup squad due to a calf injury, Nienaber said earlier this month that he was back training with the Boks and was over his injury.
“The thing about Handre is that he is currently not injured, in other words, he is over his injury,” he said. “He trained with us for two sessions now.
“But he is still on his way back.
“We have six years of data in terms of what he needs to do during a week to give us an opportunity to win a game.
the thing about Handre is that he is currently not injured, in other words, he is over his injury. He trained with us for two sessions now.
“But he is still on his way back.
“We have six years of data in terms of what he needs to do during a week to give us an opportunity to win a game.
“We can push Handre to 80 percent, but I can promise you, the risk of us then losing him in the next three to four weeks is high. It’s a numbers game.”
