Handre Pollard of the Springboks in action during his side‘s Rugby Championship match against New Zealand at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg on 13 August, 2022. (Photo: Anton Geyser / Gallo Images) 
The worst-kept secret at Rugby World Cup 2023 – that Handré Pollard would join the Springboks as an injury replacement in France – was confirmed on Sunday night.
Pollard, one of the stars of RWC 2019 when the Boks won the title in Japan, has been included as a replacement for hooker Malcolm Marx.
In another example of the unorthodox thinking of coach Jacques Nienaber and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, calling up a flyhalf for hooker initially appears like madness.
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But RasNaber hinted that they would make this move if: a) Pollard proved his fitness in a match for Leicester on Friday night, and b) if Marco van Staden and Deon Fourie both proved their worth as hookers in the Boks’ Pool B match against Romania.
Pollard came through half a game unscathed and Fourie and Van Staden never missed a lineout between them during the 76-0 win over Romania, while both showed they can play hooker. Admittedly the standard of the opponent was questionable.
With Bongi Mbonambi now the undisputed first-choice hooker after Marx’s serious knee injury, Fourie is the accepted understudy. Van Staden will fulfil the third hooker berth.
Handre Pollard of the Springboks in action during his side‘s Rugby Championship match against New Zealand at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg on 13 August 2022. (Photo: Anton Geyser / Gallo Images)
Pollard, who scored 22 points in the 2019 RWC final, will initially be understudy to Manie Libbok and is unlikely to feature against Ireland at Stade de France next week.
Libbok was the only recognised flyhalf in the Bok RWC 2023 squad when it was initially named and it’s understood the coaches were edgy that they were light in that position.
Damian Willemse can play 10, a role he performed well against Romania, but the Bok coaches see him as their main fullback now. Pollard offers some ease of mind to a thorny problem, especially now that they have a little more confidence in the hooker situation.
Full complement
The inclusion of Pollard, who returned to the field on Friday for English club Leicester after a calf injury ruled him out of contention for selection for the RWC squad, brings the full complement of players in the team back to 33.
Pollard spent some time in camp with the squad for their final two warm-up games against Wales and the All Blacks in August.
Nienaber explained the decision to call up Pollard rather than a forward: “We are confident with the cover we have at hooker with Bongi Mbonambi and Deon Fourie, and Marco van Staden has been slotting in the position since our alignment camps in February; so we opted to call up Handré, who has been in our system for years and who was a member of our team in 2019 when we won the World Cup.
“He’s been working hard to return to full fitness, and we are pleased that he now has some game time under his belt for his club, and this will allow him to slot back into the team.
“We’ll work closely with him in the next week to get him back up to speed and back into the full swing of things, and we have no doubt he’ll step up to the challenge. He’s been here before so he knows the physical and mental demands of the World Cup.”
The Springboks will make the journey from Bordeaux to Paris on Monday where they will begin their preparations for Saturday’s round-three RWC clash against Ireland. DM