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Handré Pollard scowls at the uprights as if he owns them. Australia could do with a ruthless winner like him
It would be simplistic to say South Africa won this slugfest solely because of Pollard. But he did kick all six of his shots at goal
Handré Pollard doesn’t simply point to the poles. The South African metronome, his face stuck in a perpetual scowl, thrusts a meaty finger towards the uprights as if he owns them. “You’re mine,” he growls, with the promise that in just a few short seconds an oval ball will be spiralling through them courtesy of his swinging right boot.
If there’s such a thing as a Test match animal then it is Pollard, the only fly-half present at the final whistle of two victorious World Cup campaigns. And Test match animals win Test matches. Whatever transpires across 80 minutes is almost immaterial. All that matters is the result.
It would be simplistic to say that South Africa claimed a 30-22 arm-wrestle solely because of Pollard’s right boot. The Springboks rectified last week’s sloppiness at the breakdown and were able to keep hold of the ball for extended periods. They won the battle for the skies and limited the impact of Australia’s roving loose forwards by keeping things tight, making sure that ball carriers were never isolated for too long beyond the breach.
Then again, Pollard did kick all six of his shots at goal, adding 15 points to the score. By contrast James O’Connor missed three kicks. He failed to convert Brandon Paenga-Amosa’s rolling maul try on 68 minutes before shanking two penalties late in the piece. That’s eight points shelled in a game lost by as many.
Is O’Connor to blame? Of course not, though there is a sense that for all the improvements under Joe Schmidt the one missing ingredient is found not on the training pitch but between the ears of some senior players.
Australian rugby could do with some Test match animals in their ranks. Even a smattering would do. They claimed famous victories over the Lions last month and the Springboks last week but still don’t have a trophy to show for their efforts. And until something changes, nothing really will.
Which would be a shame because on a soggy pitch in Cape Town, where handling the ball and moving it at speed required incredible skill and accuracy, the Wallabies were brilliant in patches. As they were in Johannesburg ,they were blistering from broken play. It was the quick thinking of Nic White who kicked in behind for the flying Corey Toole to score on debut and even after Tom Wright left the field with a serious knee injury, the men in gold posed a threat from deep.
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