Squidge on Handre Pollard

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Winning his way into the record books….say no more. Incredible that Eluckmiss was quite content to leave this man at home.

And Pollard could still make one more World Cup . (In 3 years, he would be 33 years old). 
Libock offers more on attack - but in the tight matches Pollard is a proven world beater.

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Pollard might be a useful bench option in 2027 . . . assuming Siya Masuka is fit . . . otherwise he starts.

It was totally clear he was almost over his injury….he played before we had our second World Cup game. But we selected Hendrikse as a fourth scrummies rather than Pollard. Criminally stupid…only saved by the Marx injury.

So he played for a few minutes  for Leicester and that made it all good?  Complete drivel Dave, you are sounding like Mike.

You didn’t have to be sure he was going  to be able to play….you had a big squad with 4 berths reserved for scrum halves. If he couldn’t play, he couldn’t play….no harm. You get another player on the next bus.

But if he could play he could be the player than wins the WC and he was. 

Utter stupidity in the cause of some principle that Eluckmiss had dreamed up. A thick oke, who believes his own bs and got incredibly lucky.

From Planet Rugby August 20th 2023.

World Cup-winning Springboks fly-half Handre Pollard is reportedly fully fit and waiting for his chance to return to the fold for the South African side.

According to Rapport in South Africa, the Leicester Tigers star, who was left out of the Springboks 33-man World Cup squad due to injury, has taken part in full training last week.

The reports also state that Pollard was getting some time at inside centre where it is believed head coach Jacques Nienaber was set to give him a run during the Rugby Championship if it were not for concerns over his recovery.

Manie Libbok has stepped up in Pollard’s absence, looking particularly good in attack. However, the major concern is the fly-half’s goal kicking which has been unsatisfactory and will be a lingering thought in Nienaber’s head going into the World Cup.

Springbok veteran Faf de Klerk spoke to Rapport and claimed Pollard is raring to go if he gets the opportunity to.

“Handré is training fully and he looks good, like the old Polly. It’s nice to have him in the group, among other things because of his experience and leadership,” De Klerk told Rapport.

“I think he’s burning to play again. He is completely fit again and now he is waiting for his chance.”

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And there you have the real logic. Eluckmiss was convinced he could turn Libbok into a match winner and he didn’t want to undermine that outcome by including Pollard. Libbok was his man.

No  Dave not stupid - they are prejudiced and isn making BS assumptions as fact.   Th e player lists was submitted to World Rugby by 1 June 2023.   That was months before the WC.   The problem si that if an injured player is on the list as submitted and eh proves to be incapable to play in the WC - he may not be replaced by a substitute.

Mozart did not go bananas on that issues when Meyer  selected Alberts - who did not play any rugby before the  2015 WC for 14 months selected him in the squad.   When you and I criticized some selections of Meyer that proved to be factually correct - there were 8 passengers in that squad that should never have been in the squad - Mozart went beserk because we accused Meyer for doing the unaccpetable in squad selection he was in full defense of Meyer - who had int toal 8 unplayable players in the 2015 WC squad - and Mozart accuse Erasmus falsely of refusing to do what Meyer did.

For the apst year Mozart conducted a lying and falsified account on anything  he could dream up to attack Erasmus  - so this is nothing new/          

So you have a potential (and as it happened confirmed) WC winner and you don’t select him because of a self imposed protocol. Instead you put all your eggs in the Libbok basket, months after he flopped in the 2023 club final. 

Genius!

Enough of the bluster Dave…..you forget, Libbok made one kick and missed 2 against Ireland, resulting in the kicking being given to Faf. Would Libbok have made that  52 meter kick Pollard made to defeat France. Nobody with half a brain would bet his WC on that….and that includes Eluckmiss who finally understood the match and the WC was on a knife’s edge and yanked Libbok at minute 44.

He was right to switch to Pollard, he was hopelessly wrong by not picking the rugby equivalent of Glenn Maxwell when he was available. Lady luck saved his blushes.

Case closed.