General Pollard tops list of Bok positives

We are just four weeks into the Vodacom Super Rugby season but Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus must be wishing that the World Cup was starting next week, such is the rapidity with which the players in his likely squad are accumulating ticks alongside their names.

Let’s take a look at what we’d consider his likely starting team and assess how those players have done. It is mostly overwhelmingly positive, and in particular Erasmus must be pleased with the way the experienced players, the drivers of his probable team, have performed.

Given that Erasmus has always seemed a bit preoccupied with the need for a world class flyhalf who has plenty of international rugby behind him performing the role of general, we can assume that the biggest reason for any smile lines starting to crease Erasmus’ face would be Handre Pollard.

This is one position where Erasmus can feel that he has been helped by his predecessor, Heyneke Meyer. The previous Bok coach blooded Pollard young - he had only just returned from the 2014 Junior World Cup when he made his international debut against Scotland in Port Elizabeth.

While Pollard didn’t follow up the sensational start to his international career, which featured a starring role in a victory over the All Blacks in Johannesburg, and was weighed under a bit by the conservative game-plan that was employed at the 2015 World Cup, the point is that Pollard did go to that World Cup.

He was the first choice for most of it. He has experience of the pressure of playing in the global showpiece event, he was part of the team that lost a close semifinal to the All Blacks at Twickenham. Unfortunately Pollard missed two years because of injury but he was an almost constant feature in the Bok team last year.

It didn’t always go well for him, and he perhaps wasn’t helped by the decision to experiment in the position for the last of three home tests against England in Cape Town. He was picking up impressive momentum at that point, and appeared to take a step backwards at the start of the Rugby Championship campaign before clicking back into gear again.

THE CLASS ACT SO FAR

There are several other contenders, and significantly most of them are playing for the Bulls, for the right to be considered the South African class act of the first quarter of Super Rugby. But Pollard’s three strong ticks in four starts, the aberration being the game against the Jaguares in Buenos Aires, places him top of the list.

A World Cup-winning team requires a pivot that directs play, determines where the forwards should go, where the game should be set up, who has the calmness and assurance to guide those around him. Pollard is bringing that in this Super Rugby season and those who have expressed the view that he’ll be the best in the world in his position one of these days might just find themselves vindicated sooner rather than later.

Pollard produced another master-class in the win over the Sharks at Loftus. The Bulls, now that they have sorted out their scrum, clearly have a pack that can perform to the level of the legendary units that laid the platform for Super Rugby success at the turn of the last decade. They also have a halfback pairing to compare with those that have featured in the Bulls’ winning teams.

Okay, neither Ivan van Zyl or Embrose Papier are in the class of Fourie du Preez. But then who is? Du Preez was a once in a generation player. Van Zyl did show at Loftus this past weekend though that he has several strengths which could turn him in time into a complete international scrumhalf, and the promising Papier is learning fast.

JIGSAW PIECES FITTING TOGETHER

Scrumhalf is one area where we can’t say that the first weeks of Super Rugby have delivered an emphatic endorsement for the likely wearer of the No 9 at the World Cup for the simple reason that Faf de Klerk isn’t playing in the competition.

Neither is fullback Willie le Roux. Lood de Jager delivered on the first weekend but has subsequently been injured, which is a pity for he is prodigious talent, so the other missing jigsaw piece is Franco Mostert, currently playing in England.

For the rest though it has all been positive, with Duane Vermeulen cutting a commanding and influential presence playing off the back of the Bulls scrum, and together with Schalk Brits making a habit of underlining the importance of experience.

What is the biggest difference to the Bulls this year in comparison to the last? It’s the addition of those two experienced campaigners. And to think that both of them were effectively spurned by the Stormers.

Talking of the Stormers, the Cape team weren’t in action this weekend but they do have two starting Boks who have already made a strong early-season statement in the form of Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit. Both of them are head and shoulders above anyone else in their positions.

You’d say the same about Malcolm Marx even though Brits has suggested himself as such a strong alternative at hooker. The disquiet in Durban over the omission from the Bok plans of Akker van der Merwe, if that is indeed the case, should have been quelled somewhat by Brits’ performances over the past two weekends.

NYAKANE DEFINITELY TICKED A BOX

We haven’t seen Steven Kitshoff yet because he is out injured but we know what he can do and with Beast continuing to prove ever-green in the No 1, there are no problems at loosehead.

Frans Malherbe made a belated start to the season but was solid when he did start against the Sharks, but the man who made the biggest statement this past weekend was Trevor Nyakane. That is most emphatically a box that the Bok coach will enjoy ticking.

Skipper Siya Kolisi would probably be the first to admit he is making a slow start to the season but he is sure to gather some momentum once he gets properly back into the swing of things and there shouldn’t be reason for concern. At the back Damian de Allende also started slowly for the Stormers but picked up some momentum in the game against the Sharks.

SPOILT FOR RICHES - AND A POSSIBLE BOLTER

It is at outside centre though that Erasmus should feel most spoilt for riches. Lukhanyo Am has been consistently good in a Sharks backline that hasn’t fired as well as it should be expected to since the Durbanites started their sequence of successive defeats, and then there’s Jesse Kriel. Kriel, like Pollard, and De Allende for that matter, is a veteran of the previous World Cup. Good though Am has been, you can’t write off Kriel.

And then there’s the newcomer, Wandisile Simelane, who was at the heart of the other strong message that was drummed out this past weekend. While the Bulls reminded us of the importance of experience, Simelane and his teammates reminded us of the energy that can be delivered by youth.

There’s no denying Simelane’s potential. He has only played one Super Rugby game so let’s not get carried away, but Jean de Villiers and Frans Steyn will remind you that sometimes in a World Cup year there are injuries that change plans, as happened in 2007.

Erasmus has spoken about the possibility of another Steyn, who leapfrogged into the Bok plans at the age of just 19, forcing his way into his plans. There’s a lot of rugby to be played between now and the World Cup, but don’t bet all your possessions against Simelane being the bolter.

WEEKEND RESULTS:

Hurricanes 25 Highlanders 22

Rebels 29 Brumbies 26

Crusaders 57 Chiefs 28

Blues 28 Sunwolves 20

Waratahs 28 Reds 17

Emirates Lions 47 Jaguares 39

Vodacom Bulls 37 Cell C Sharks 14