South Africa Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus Photo: PHOTOSPORT
There will be no panic in the South Africa camp in the wake of their 13-8 loss to Ireland in a bruising Rugby World Cup Pool B clash in Paris on Sunday, but there is a tough choice to be made around the flyhalf berth for the rest of the tournament.
Ireland deserved their victory with some heroic defence, breakdown dominance and the ability to take their chances, while South Africa were inaccurate in the opposition 22 and off the kicking tee, missing three penalties and a conversion.
Those 11 wasted points laid bare the headache facing the coaches, who must now choose between the dynamism with ball in hand of incumbent Manie Libbok, or the accuracy off the kicking tee of Handre Pollard, who has returned from a calf injury but does not offer the same skills in attack.
"Handre will play this weekend (against Tonga in Marseille next Sunday), but let's see how he does the other stuff in the game," South Africa's director of rugby Rassie Erasmus told reporters on Monday.
"Does he get through it on the contact side of things? I am sure he'll also take some time to find his rhythm with his kicking under pressure.
"The Tonga game will be a great test for him as a yardstick to see where he is before we go, if we go, into those quarter-finals, and who will be on the field.
"Manie is certainly playing brilliant flyhalf rugby at the moment, but his goal-kicking is not matching that."
Pollard's inclusion could herald a return to the formula for their 2019 World Cup success, squeezing penalties out of teams with forward muscle and building scoreboard pressure through kicks at goal.
But Erasmus insists they will not continue to select him unless they are certain he can bring an all-round game.
"Handre is not Superman," Erasmus said.
"Four weeks ago he was totally not ready to play rugby. He has only played 40 minutes of rugby (since).
"He can't just come on the field and do goal-kicking. He must tackle, pass, do kick-offs, sidestep, do hand-offs and clean out at the rucks."
Ireland focused
Meanwhile, Ireland may have won the battle but coach Andy Farrell knows the war rages on at the Rugby World Cup and has called for his side to keep improving.
It was a match that pitted the top two sides in the world against each another in a bone-crunching contest that has underlined Ireland's status as the team to beat.
But Farrell knows this is not the time to get carried away, with his side yet to have sealed their place in the quarter-finals let alone think about lifting the trophy.
"It's wonderful to win, but there was not much in it between the two sides," he told reporters.
"We will know what that feels like further down the line, to learn those lessons with a win. When you love defending as much as we did in that game, that stands us in good stead.
"We will need to be better as the competition goes on. We've got very good at not getting too emotional and staying on task."
What Ireland cannot do is rest on their laurels, and experienced first five-eighth Johnny Sexton said they have to step up again when they face Scotland in their final Pool B game.
That challenge does not come around until October 7, by which time Ireland may already have secured a quarter-final place if other results go their way.
"Now it's all about Scotland, an excellent team," Sexton said.
"They'll be frustrated with how they played against South Africa (in an 18-3 loss), but we struggled to get our game going against South Africa too."
Sexton agrees with Farrell that Ireland will have to get better if they are to advance beyond the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time.
"It was a very physical game, a lot more collisions than our first two matches," he said.
"I'm proud of the lads to front up. There were a lot of mistakes, but we just brushed them off. Plenty to work on, though."
- Reuters
