Pollard's career as Rugby Player

Mozart is again trying to stir up trouble on site so lets look at Pollard's rugby career since 2012 when as a 17 year old he first came to the fore in the Under 20 RWC.

In the 2012 RWC Tony Jantjies failed horribly at flyhalf in the game against the Irish in the Under 20 RWC.  The result was that the 17 year old Pollard was brought into the team and was a real reason for them winning the Under 20 RWC,  He followed that up in the two Under 20 series in 2013 and 2014.    In one the Springboks lost against England by 1 point because Andre Esterhuizen knocked on a ball passed to him in the final thus destroying a certain try—scoring opportunity, 

In 2013 Pollard went to the Bulls and there he was NOT used at flyhalf – but at 12 in the Junior Bulls teams and in the Varsity Cup,  because the disastrous Morne Steyn was still on contract with the Bulls he was virtually never used by the Bulls in the flyhalf position for the Bulls main team - until  after Morne was gone and a bloke by the name pf Potgieter failed in 2014 Pollard played for the Bulls regularly,   .  Both Ludeke and later on Meyer tried to turn Pollard into a replica of Morne and that became a huge problem that had a serious detrimental effect on his career.

Be it as it is Pollard’s first test was against the Scots in June 2014 partly because the test was outside the June test window of the RWC and partly because in the second Welsh test in June Morne was a disaster as per normal - Pollard was selected at flyhalf against the Scots and had a brilliant start.   Meyer then kept Pollard as flyhalf against the Argentina teams in the RWC where he was very average.  Like Ludeke Meyer was determined to chance  Pollard into a replica of Morne and used him in the Argentina tests in the RC where he was forced into playing the Morne game and did not show much as a pivot.   He was not a replica of Morne and forcing him to play like Morne was a very real threat to his career as a flyhalf.  

After two rather average performances by Pollard – both won by the Springboks despite the poor and disastrous scrumming that put the Springboks on the back foot all the time – Meyer had another brain fart and brought back Morne for the Perth test against Australia.   As it turned out Morne virtually on his own  lost the test and after that test Meyer wrote of Morne at flyhalf and Pollard was brought back to play against the next three tests in the RC.

Pollard was very good in the away test against the AB’s – which the Springboks could have won – but for one incident.   The AB’s was leading 14-10 when they were penalized in their own 22 and the corner kick was taken with the view of forming a driving maul in an effort to score a try.  The maul idea vanished into thin air when Matfield fumbled the ball when thrown in and that destroyed any chance of the Springboks winning that test.

In the home tests against Australia and New Zealand Pollard was brilliant and the Springboks won both.    The win against the AB’s  had one problem – namely because of two excellent tries scored by Pollard. the, the Springboks were in the lead.   However, the Springbok lead was destroyed by Matfield when on own throw he was out-jumped in a line-out about  five meters from the tryline and the AB’s scored a converted try,   In the final few minutes of the game Lambie kicked a 55 meter penalty conversion and the Springboks consequently won their first test under Meyer against the All Blacks

Then the situation turns bad in the disastrous EOYT.   There was no question about  Pollard being the first choice flyhalf – but Meyer insisted that he play the Morne Steyn style on the NH tour in November 2014,   The Irish test that year was a disaster because Pollard never was a Morne clone and he was promptly replaced by Meyer as starting  flyhalf by Lambie in the rest of the tests,   The whole series turned into a disaster for the Springboks.

During and after that series Meyer played ping-pong with Pollard’s career at flyhalf – he apparently preferred Lambie at flyhalf ahead of Pollard.   In the period from November 2014 to September 2015 the Springboks was at the lowest ebb ever when they won  only three tests and lost six tests.   After the Japan disaster  Pollard  returned as starting flyhalf  for the Springboks in the remainder of the series and he did not show much since the defective Meyer so-called game plan neutralized  the Springbok backline and other than kicking at goal Pollard did not show much in the series,

Due to injury Pollard played virtually no rugby in 2016 and 2017.   Based on what happened under the ruinous coaching of Meyer – there were indeed question marks as to Pollard’s future.   When Erasmus took over the coaching in 2018 he paid special attention to Pollard’s inputs as to flyhalf play and the decided that Pollard should use his natural talent and make decisions himself on the field of play.   The result is that today we have the brilliant flyhalf we have in Pollard and the damage done by Meyer to his career was finally eliminated,                                

Pollard's career as Rugby Player decoy for another anti-Meyer rant

the-ooms-real-ranking-of-pollard

Pakie

Prove that I am wrong in any of the above I wrote.   Pollard - other than in the Aussie and AB tests  in 2014 were not even 10% of the performance  we had in 2019 - why did that happen?

By the way in the Coetzee period as coach Mozart repeatedly wrote on site that Frans Steyn should be used as flyhalf and Pollard at inside center.   That would have caused a major problem for the naturally gifted  flyhalf Pollard and  was the most simpleminded idea ever expressed on this site,  Steyn was NO flyhalf and Plumtree even  rated him as NOT a center at all.   Problem with Steyn was he needed time to make decisions and he did not have the time at flyhalf.

He was nearly as bad a defender at flyhalf as  Morne was in 2013 and 2014.   In the 2019 WC Erasmus used Steyn at center in the game against Canada - but made sure he had De Allende outside of him to cover for any mistakes Steyn was capable of.   In any event - in all games Steyn was on the bench he replaced Le Roux late in games.    

However, there was one incident in the final where the English was in shambles and they lost the ball in a tackle.   The turn-over ball was passed to Steyn  and the whole Springbok backline was  outside of him  with only two defenders of the English in place.   Instead of  passing the ball to the waiting backline with only three defenders before them - Farrell fell back to the English 22 and would have been the third defender - Steyn decided to make a long distance kick collected by Farrell and the English counter-attacked,    Farrell passed the ball and in an excellent open-field tackle on the English wing  Du Toit stopped the attack within the English territory.

The moral of the story was that if  Pollard got that ball from the breakdown a try under the posts by the Springboks was an absolute certainty.   The incident happened round about minute 70 in the final.   That is a perfect example of defective decision-making by Fransie,      

Hahaha....but that’s not Mike, the horse has all it’s teeth and a readily apparent sense  of humor.

Mozart

Can you deny any of the above that I wrote?   No you cannot and it is factual.

You ask members who they preferred at flyhalf - Lambie or Pollard - yet your idol Meyer - whom you never criticized and whose every idiocy you support apparently preferred Lambie over Pollard,   

Then there is another critical question - why was there a massive improvement in Pollard's performances  in 2018 and 2019 compared to the EOYT in 2014 and the end of 2015?   The answer is quite simple - at the Bulls he was coached by Ludeke - who was clueless about backline play and the role of the flyhalf and playing for the Springboks who were even worse,  For them - like you - the role  of the flyhalf was to kick balls out-of-hand or at goal posts destroying backline play.

You cannot deny the fact that Matfield was a disaster in 2014 and 2015 as was mentioned in two instances by me - neither can you deny that by 2014 the Springbok team started showing serious decline because of Meyer's selection criteria .allowing only for reputation selection and never for performance-based selections.   

Lastly - you cannot deny that by his ridiculous coaching and so-called game plan Pollard's career was seriously damaged and that Erasmus put it back on track.

So keep it up - keep attacking Erasmus because  it proves that your knowledge of rugby is a cesspool containing only shit and nothing else.    Keep on manufacturing BS about incidents in games - things that happened, but you destroyed it by distorting it and even lied about it.    Lastly keep up your bias against the Springboks under Erasmus -  the fact that they won the WC was a massive shock to you and your reaction was a lukewarm welcoming of the success -  and within 14 days the start of long strings of attacks on him and some of the key players in the team.

     .          ,        

Pollard was excellent under Meyer, but he had ome flaw: he wanted to run, and he struggled to control a game tactically. That's why I said Morné must be on the bench if Meyer wanted to go with Pollard, as an insurance policy in case Pollard was struggling. On the EOYT, Pollard was excellent, it was actually Lambie who floundered, along with Goosen. It was typical plastic pseudo fans who kept pushing for Lambie, the media under Meyer was relentless in pressuring for selections, and the fans even booed Pollard against Argentina for the hapless Lambie. This did not reflect Pollard's level of play, nor Meyer, it reflected South Africans gullible nature in falling for the media bate. The issues that Pollard had then are still present now, he leans more that way, but he has matured. I'd say his distribution is the one thing that has improved the most, and field awareness. That came with time. To turn this into another anti-Meyer rant is disgusting. No players are especially more effective under Rassie. I proved that when I debunked your Willie lie, and the comparison between Steph and Schalk at 7. Ende. 

Kindergarten Imbecile

Pollard  played three tests excellently under Meyer after being in Theron's care as Under 20 Coach,  but then he collapsed in a heap when Meyer and his ignorance got the upper hand.  ,   

This is really what I mean - the knowledge of rugby is non-existent in your case,   A flyhalf not attacking the gain line is not a flyhalf's arse,   Morne was an absolute useless flyhalf because of that and the fact that backline play was destroyed by him.   Morne in any team was a negative for years and even Meyer - the worst Springbok coach ever - realized it, 

Nobody should be able to influence the coach  in selecting players and that plastics story is another cover  for the weak-minded Meyer,   If a coach wants a player the so-called plastics you invented  sh ould have no influence,   However, we know that Meyer had no idea about team selection other than on the basis of reputation gained under other coaches,  

So Meyer did with  Pollard what Meyer was unable to do.   Fact is in his incompetence Meyer nearly destroyed  Pollard's career,   You have proved nothing. since you even committed statics fraud to use to protect the coach who was fired by Stade Francais for basically the same reason as his contract by SARU was not renewed,  

However, your response  contained a lot of BS of no value, but at least you admitted one thing - Meyer nearly destroyed Pollard's career -  while he flourished under Erasmus.   

So lets get it straight - the Stade Francais bench flyhalf was as useless for the Springboks as was the Stade Francais coach fired for gross incompetence.   After the Meyer dispatch - together with Steyn and Alberts - from Stade the club recovered and is now 5th on the log of the Top 14 and still in contention to win their trophy,   

By the way this was not an attack on Meyer - it basically was a statement of fact how badly he handled the Pollard case.       

Duplication

By the way the fact is that I used facts and not imagined and made-up fiction like you deal when dealing with all rugby issues,   You should be ashamed of what you write about M\Erasmus and a some players on site based entirely on distortion and lies.   That is what really is disfuting,  .    

Seems Alberts is playing up a storm.....better check that out Wanker.

He is and remains known as Sloth,  A storm by Alberts must be the slowest ever,   I watched the start of the game and there were so many errors by both side that I lost interest.

Miracles happen and I love to watch miracle movies, - so I will watch the game when replayed on TV.      

I suppose that the next thing Mozart and some others will come up with is why Albers should be in the Springbok team,    However - good luck to him with the MOM ,  but don't lose perspective, -

*    the SA teams took a beating  from the Chinese virus and the departure of a lot of top players, with the situation being that that the quality of the CC rugby being very poor;

*    the SA teams will have to rebuilt themselves to again becomes competitive' and

*    that players like Alberts, Jannie du Plessis  and Morne Steyn - who came back to SA - left the clubs they played for since 2015 and even earlier under a cloud - they lost their usage potential.      

Rugby  is not under the cloud cricket is at present - but I foresee that rebuilding of quality in competitions like the CC will take two or even more years by using new talent, = not recycling has beens or never has beens.

Last week Kitshof was MOM - but all we got on site was criticism of him by certain members,- now the same members go wild about Alberts being MOM this week,                  

Alberts MOM....hahaha....and he was supposedly useless 6 years ago. The egg flows.