South Africa’s Pollard puts kicking problems behind him

Hurting All Blacks must learn lesson, says Crotty

PRETORIA, Oct 2, (RTRS): South Africa flyhalf Handre Pollard is confident he will be able to deliver kick points on Saturday when the Springboks look to do the double over world champions New Zealand in this year’s Rugby Championship.

Pollard struggled with his kicking earlier in the competition, but was better when they upset the All Blacks in Wellington and had a 100 percent return in Saturday’s 23-12 win over Australia in Port Elizabeth.

He says he battled with a month-long break between the end of his Super Rugby campaign with the Bulls and the start of the Rugby Championship.

“I think I just lost my rhythm a bit. I worked hard at it, and it didn’t come back straight away, but thankfully the last couple of games have been a lot better,” Pollard told a news conference on Tuesday.

“It just required some small tweaks, and I had to keep in mind that you’re going to have your off days and that it happens to the best in the world. For now it feels good, and hopefully I can keep that going.

“I’ve worked with some kicking coaches at the beginning of my career, but as you go on, you know exactly what you’re doing wrong when you’re making mistakes, and it’s just

In this Sept 29, 2018 file photo, New Zealand All Blacks centre Ryan Crotty (front), is tackled by Argentina Los Pumas flanker Pablo Matera during their Rugby Championship match

at Jose Amalfitani Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AFP)

about getting back into the routine and rhythm.”

Pollard plays at his home ground, Loftus Versfeld, against New Zealand, whose No. 10

This file photo taken on Nov 23, 2013 shows Australia’s Greg Inglis during the 2013 Rugby League World Cup semifinal match between Australia and

Fiji at Wembley Stadium in London. (AFP)

Beauden Barrett has also shown inconsistency off the kicking tee.

But Pollard was not buying into the suggestion Barrett might be feeling pressure.

“The best player in the world with 70-odd test matches doesn’t feel too much pressure,” he said.

“He’s a confident guy and he might have also had a couple of off days in the past, I’m sure he’ll be 100 percent, so we have to just make sure that we play as well as possible.

“There’s no doubt that they will be coming hard at us,” said Pollard.

“They don’t like losing and they would want to rectify matters. We know it’s going to be hard and physical and we will have to match that.

“We have a bit of confidence and we are in a good space but we strive to consistently play at a high level. There’s no doubt that Saturday will be an enormous test for us,” Pollard added.

Meanwhile, New Zealand centre Ryan Crotty hopes the world champions have learned their lesson from last month’s home defeat by South Africa as they seek to re-establish their Rugby Championship dominance over the Springboks in Pretoria at the weekend.

“There were a few learnings for us out there. We were feeling good when we were 14 points up and we let them back in,” Crotty said on Tuesday of the shock 36-34 loss in Wellington.

“They created a bit of pressure but we let them back into the game. We could have executed better down the stretch.

“We always believed we were going to get it done but we didn’t and so that hurts.”

Crotty suggested New Zealand’s lines of communication had broken down at times against the Springboks.

“As a leadership group, we learnt just how important our communication is out there (on the field) so that we can make good decisions in terms of our game plan,” he told a news conference as the All Blacks continued their preparation for Saturday’s test at Loftus Versfeld.

The match is the last for both nations in this year’s Rugby Championship which New Zealand secured thanks to their 35-17 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday.

Prop Owen Franks said there was still plenty to play for against South Africa even with the title in the bag.

“You can’t beat a test in Pretoria, hopefully it’s a sellout. I haven’t played in a sold out stadium there since 2009 against the Bulls and it’s an awesome atmosphere,” he said.

Organizers said last month that all 50,000 tickets had been sold for the game.