Would Rassie have selected

Hahaha…are you getting soft Dave. Asking for Board support. Of course he would have selected Pollard. His mistake was not selecting a Pollard who had a very high chance of being fit and ready for the knockouts. 

The squad had to be announced weeks before they left...there was reason behind the decision. 

We would not have won wothout Pollard .. end of. It was a huge tactical mistake even if he were carrying a niggle he was on the path to full recovery within a couple of weeks . After all we took to 50min son of the nation Kolisi. He should have taken 3 9's and Pollard. We could then have replaced Marx with another forward, not doing so was a huge gamble but the only way he could overcome his mistake.

I fully support Rassie but this non selection was a brain fart!

I find it hard to believe that the rugby astute Rassie would have consciously left off a match ready and fit Pollard from his RWC squad. Coaches make some strange selections and non selections but.......

"Yes policy and System is there, but there is no Rule like Moz said that prevents you from taking a not match fit player with."

Yes there isn't,  but there is a rule preventing you from replacing a player in your RWC who was injured prior to squad announcement...Moz's ignorance of such rule is no excuse for Rassie to ignore it... and SA Rugby probably has protocols wrt picking injured players regardless of Rassie's wishes...poor attemt at Rassie-bashing...

Why 4 Nines ?

Who knows?...but what has that got to do with Pollard's omission due to injury?

My ignorance of a rule nobody can find anywhere, is hardly persuasive. The point is we could have taken Pollard regardless of whether he could be replaced or not. As BokBF points out leaving it up to an injury, meant that injured player couldn’t be replaced….in this case the hooker. The very fact Dave seizes on to excuse our weak performance against 7 man NZ.

Logically one can only assume Rasmus thought Pollard wasn’t needed.

Please correct the record Draad or produce the rule, ChatGTP can’t find it.

OK fair...Chat GPT is a good enough source. I will accept that until I see something more reliable...the Supersport.com article I posted was wrong...the pundits I recalled making these assertions were also wrong...I was mislead by supposed experts...so given these facts, I think Rassie was then also wrong not including Pollard...unless protocol prevented him from including Pollard, but in the absence of proof of such protocol, I accept that it was stupid not including him...I will definitely ask Rassie why, if I ever get the opportunity. 

Just ask yurself a question -why could Meyer not replace Alberts and  De Villiers in the 2015 WRC.    The reasons were the same.   They could not be replaced because World Rugby rules did t allow for such replcements.   None of them played any rugb for months by the time the player lists was submitted to WR and that showed the real impact of that rule/

In any event -  he 2023 RWC is gone - and he attacks on Ersmus was never sopped by his site detracters - which in iself is BS.   spreading - so why argue about nothing  on site?        

Maaik...it is what it is.

Well here's the reasoning behind 4 scrumhalves straight from the horses' mouths:

"Draad honestly that’s hardly bashing….and the actual policy is not at fault, it’s Rassie making a wrong decision in not putting the trust in Pollard,s recovery and readiness.

And as it turned out, Pollard proved him wrong and was eventually the Catalyst that made it happen for us in WC 23."

We don't know exactly who's call it was and what the reasoning was, but as director of rugby Rassie should probably take the responsibility...to his credit, he included him as soon as the opportunity arose...what would have happened if Marx didn't get injured?...who knows?

"Well here's the reasoning behind 4 scrumhalves straight from the horses' mouths"

Excellent tactical processes, I can't fault their logic in why they did that..... especially as they even went into the history of each player's ability whilst playing rugby early in their careers, to determine which positions they could cover, if needed.

"And if Marx didn't injure himself, then Rassie would have had to cheat to get Pollard into the squad...provided of course that nobody else injured themselves."

Ja, that bothers me too.

"then Rassie would have had to cheat to get Pollard into the squad"

I think if most people are very honest, this has been in the back of everyone's minds since the Marx injury..... what would Rassie have done, if Marx did not get injured, and he stayed...... because no ways would Rassie fake a Marx injury even if he did want to cheat and get Pollard back, so could someone else have just become "injured"... if nobody else legitimately got injured before the big games.

We will never know