Handré Pollard shattered to miss out on facing All Blacks – Mzwandile Stick

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu gets a chance to improve on his first Test showing against the All Blacks after Handré Pollard pulled out of the second Test with injury. Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick said that veteran flyhalf Handré Pollard was close to tears when he made the difficult decision to pull himself out of the running to face the All Blacks in the second Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu produced a mixed performance in the opening Test at Ellis Park last Saturday, leading to Pollard, who missed out on the match 23, being brought straight into the starting side for this week’s game, most likely to bring an element of calm and authority to the clash. However, he picked up a calf injury in training on Wednesday and was given until Friday to see if he would feel any better, before the Boks were forced to make a change and bring Feinberg-Mngomezulu into the starting lineup and Manie Libbok back onto the bench. Taking ownership Speaking at the captain’s media conference on Friday afternoon, Stick admitted how proud he was of Pollard for taking ownership of his injury and saying he was uncomfortable and unable to play, which must have been extremely difficult ahead of such a big match. “I’m not a medical expert, but I think it happened on Wednesday, we’re waiting for tests now. I can’t really go deep and say how long he’s going to be out for, but it’s a calf (injury),” explained Stick about what happened. “For a leader like him to be honest about how he feels and put his pride aside, in a sense, to say, ‘listen, I’m not feeling well,’ it was tough. At that moment in the training session, I could see he was close to tears. “I know it’s a sad thing to lose a player like that, especially when he has been in such good shape and working very hard, even when he was not in the match 23. But we have Sacha back in the starting line-up and Manie is on the bench. “Handré has been positive and trying to assist the guys, so I feel for him. Hopefully, he can recover quickly.” Taking chances Looking towards the match, Stick said that the Boks would have to finish off their chances if they are to bounce back from their opening Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry loss at Ellis Park last weekend, and pick up a win over the All Blacks to level the series in Cape Town. “Everyone has got their opinion on how they see the game (last weekend). How you act on it is up to you when it comes to your feelings. But again, we are the coaches. We watch the clips again and again. We also discuss (things with the squad) and they are important,” said Stick. “Unfortunately, if you don’t take your opportunity, someone else will. That’s exactly what happened last week. We got a few opportunities, they (the All Blacks) also got theirs. “They buried them and turned them into points. That’s the reality of this series and where we are currently. It’s another opportunity tomorrow and we’ve done everything in our power to make sure that the players are ready.” The match on Saturday kicks off at 5.10pm.