On the face of it, South Africa have been beset by disruption before their most significant match since the successful defence of their World Cup title. Rassie Erasmus had sought to lean further on the Springboks’ set-piece strengths by selecting Handré Pollard at fly-half for the second Test against New Zealand in Cape Town, suggesting a narrow gameplan. A return to the tried and tested.
A reliance on what he knows best. Then came news of the “niggle”. Out goes Pollard, who, according to the Friday morning bulletin, suffered said niggle in training on Wednesday and failed a fitness test 24 hours before the match, and back comes the far more adventurous Sacha Feinberg‑Mngomezulu into the No 10 jersey.
Feinberg‑Mngomezulu struggled in last week’s 33-16 defeat at Ellis Park, as he did on his comeback from injury against Argentina earlier this month, but the 24-year-old has a skill set that has marked him out as a future global star. The upshot is that South Africa head to the Mother City for their must-win match against the All Blacks with a completely different type of fly-half. Pollard is experienced, reliable from the tee and, as Erasmus said this week, has delivered “under extreme pressure” time and again for the Springboks.
His nerveless goal-kicking guided them to the 2023 World Cup title and, in what are forecast to be wet conditions, South Africa’s initial approach seemed clear. As Erasmus had said when reflecting on his side’s game management in the first Test, “we made a lot of stupid calls. Three points is two less than five [for a try].
Handré is a guy that has always done it for us”. In turn, it is a fair conclusion to reach that the approach changes somewhat with the introduction of Feinberg-Mngomezulu, while the return of Cheslin Kolbe, who has replaced Kurt-Lee Arendse in the starting XV as of Friday, is significant because he will assume goal‑kicking duties. It does not take much looking on social media, however, to find the conspiracy theorists spouting what, truth be told, most of us are wondering – was this a classic piece of misdirection from Erasmus?
Was it the plan all along? The fact that Erasmus has previous further fuels that particular fire, as does the convenience of recalling Kolbe to kick at goal, but Pollard’s selection did make a degree of sense. In the 2023 World Cup semi-final against England, Erasmus hooked Manie Libbok after half an hour, sending on Pollard to steer the Boks home.
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