Why so many great Springboks are such disappointments for their clubs
Three drunk blokes on the train from Leicester to London don’t represent the views of all Tigers’ supporters. But their shared opinion of the club’s World Cup-winning fly-half, Handre Pollard, after his 14 points from the tee helped earn a 40-22 win over Exeter Chiefs, opened an interesting subplot.
Drunk Bloke #1: “He’s obviously brilliant at times.”
Drunk Bloke #2: “But he seems to make a few mistakes every game and he’s not exactly the most creative fly-half.”
Drunk Bloke #3: “He’s much better suited to the Springboks way of playing.”
With South Africa, Pollard has won two World Cups and established himself as one of the most important Test fly-halves in the history of the sport. His clutch goal-kicking, his steady hand under pressure and his physicality mean he is a perfectly shaped cog in the Springboks machine.
But it’s not just the pragmatic components of his game that seem to operate at a higher efficiency when he’s wearing the bottle green of the Boks. Since the start of 2020, Pollard has more off-loads per game and more break assists per game for his country than his two clubs – Montpellier and Leicester – in that time.
The comedian and cricket statistician Andy Zaltzman said that “Statistics are like a ventriloquist’s dummy. Shove your hand far enough up them, you can make them say whatever you want.” With that in mind, the twisting of variables to suit a narrative should be regarded with some scepticism. But when assessing certain metrics of some key Springboks over the past four years, a notable pattern emerges.
Steven Kitshoff has made more carries per game, more dominant tackles per game and won more turnovers per game when playing for South Africa than he has managed for either Ulster or the Stormers since 2020. In that time, Frans Malherbe has had better gainline success for South Africa than the Stormers. Eben Etzebeth has better gainline success, attracts the attention of more than one tackler with greater frequency, and makes more tackles per game when playing for South Africa compared to his time with Toulon and the Sharks.
Willie le Roux has more try assists for the Springboks per game than he does for Toyota Verblitz or the Bulls. Pieter-Steph du Toit’s tackle evasion, gainline success and line breaks are all better for club than country. Damian de Allende, despite playing his club rugby in Japan, makes almost three times as many dominant tackles when wearing the Springbok on his chest. But the player with the greatest statistical disparities is the man who, for six years, has been the embodiment of the Springboks dream.
Siya Kolisi is one of the most accomplished loose forwards in the Test arena. He can carry into heavy traffic, he’s a threat over the ball and he provides options on attack wide in the trams. He has a superb work rate and a handy off-load game. In short, he’d make just about any match-day 23 at a World Cup.
I wonder if even his most die-hard supporters could say the same about his contributions at domestic level. There’s a cliche in sport that some players require a particular jersey to perform at their best. Kolisi’s showings for the Stormers, Sharks and Racing 92 has breathed life into the adage.
Tries scored, tries assisted, tackle evasion success, gainline success, attracting more than one tackler when carrying, tackles made, tackle success, dominant tackles, turnovers won, attacking rucks hit, attacking ruck efficiency, defensive rucks hit; across all these markers, Kolisi has better numbers for the Boks than any of the three clubs he has represented over the past four years.
How can this be? Test rugby is supposed to be more difficult. Even supposedly weaker opposition are stacked with a country’s best available talent. The level of scrutiny is greater and the stakes are that much higher. What could explain this twist in logic?
An answer might lie in the stats that connect all the aforementioned forwards. Kolisi, Kitshoff, Malherbe, Etzebeth and Du Toit all hit more attacking and defensive rucks in Test rugby than they did for their respective clubs over four years. That could be a consequence of the Springboks’ strategy that requires every member of the pack to force front foot ball and offer support to both ball carrier and tackler on the deck. It could also be a result of the different demands for their clubs. But maybe the answer lies beyond the GPS data and percentiles.
When Rassie Erasmus, Jacques Nienaber and the rest of the Springboks coaches link their team’s on-field exploits with the hopes of a nation, they’re doing so to inspire but also to extract that little extra effort from every player. Hitting rucks is something that any member of the squad can do. To paraphrase the former Ireland captain, Paul O’Connell, it’s one part of the game that requires very little talent. It’s all hard work and hunger and desire. And on that front, arguably more than any other team in rugby, the Springboks are the top-ranked outfit.
Recently, a post on X that attracted around 75 thousand views ranked the Premiership’s top 10 fly-halves of the season. Pollard, the only 10 in the competition with a World Cup crown, was eighth. Fin Smith, Owen Farrell, Finn Russell, George Ford and Marcus Smith were all above him. The many reposts and comments below the line quibbled over the top five, but all were firmly of the opinion that Pollard has been nowhere near their level.
This is the same Pollard that was shunted out to No12 at Montpellier by Italy’s Paolo Garbisi. This is the same Pollard that felt surplus to South Africa’s requirements in early 2023 when Manie Libbok was pulling strings at first receiver. This is the same Pollard who never looked like missing a goal kick as he hoofed the Boks to a fourth world title.
It is said that some players require a particular jersey to perform at their best. When they’re wearing bottle green, they often perform better than most.
Comments on RugbyPass
These are the guys that do the cohesion predictions? That will be a very interesting review and they have likely already told the Crusaders of their expections for them given such a young and inexperienced squad without all their injured and departed players. I wonder if any of that will get leaked out, perhaps only if the cohesion metric predicted such a season? Actually even that would like badly upon the backoffice, I suspect it likely we will never know what Gain Line Analytics made of this season now! Unless the PUs put its publication to vote?
10 Go to commentsCurrently across the super franchises the forwards choices for Robertson is in the luxury of the competitions depth for selection . However same can’t be said regarding selection of the backs, especially the inside backs. I believe that’s where his dilemma will be. If he can’t get mouanga for the start then he should forget him and move on.
27 Go to commentsIf they had another round up their sleeve then no doubt the sadas wouldv been top8. I say leave things alone and get into the next season I rekon the turn around will carry on.
10 Go to commentsSimilar to Arran Smith in his style of application.
5 Go to commentsSave your money. Just learn from the bad stuff and play better next year. Lost loads of key players and had half the team out broken for most of the season.
10 Go to commentsJosh Ioane has been great for opposition teams all season. The sooner the Chiefs unload him to MP the better.
6 Go to commentsMunster have very good back row stocks nowadays, lots of guys with very high potential. Okeke is unlucky not to get a contract. If he came along 10 years ago, he almost certainly would have. Could be very good for Coventry.
1 Go to commentsGreat article! Love that you point out so much that is positive, and back it up with quotes and clips.
1 Go to commentsNo scapegoats. No knee-jerk reactions. Just excuses in an expensive report under file 13. I’ll give the saders some free consulting - no planning after Razor. Just let things fall flat to rebuild. Easy.
10 Go to commentsJosh Bayliss was the early sub for Barbeary
1 Go to commentsHis deficiencies in defence must be major and beyond rebuilding because on attack he has a unique set of skills matched only by a combination of Mark Telea, Shaun Stevenson and Etene Nanai Seturo. His aerial and kicking game is next level and he displays a contempt for one on one situations. We've become obsessed with our no. 11 being a power weapon ignoring the better multi faceted option. Mark Telea is helping to change that mind set, Salesi Rayasi would advance that too.
6 Go to commentsWayne barnes should join the Queen
271 Go to commentsHope both you dirty mutts get cancer and die
41 Go to commentsOqueef was on the saffa pay roll , needs his head stomped
180 Go to commentsChiefs miss a tight 5 of serious grunt. Missing Guzzlers.scrum power and the Blues have spent the last.few yrs nicking their props. Will have to start better than recent matches to stop the Reds.
6 Go to commentsWith the civil war going on over in NZR you have to wonder if these guys can afford to throw money around on consulting firms? Consultants just going to charge them thousands for the privilege of telling them that the brain drain is hurting them, they played like pork chops & maybe some insights gleaned from reading the various rugby blog posts with a couple of graphs thrown in to dicky the report up. My suggestion is they forego the consultants and get a subscription to watch the URC, English Premiership, Top14 and EPCR competitions so that they can learn a bit from all the players and coaches that have left already NZ.
10 Go to commentsI am pleased about the progress of Canada and their recent success. What concerns me slightly is the the PWR league in England has become the breeding ground for other countries’ players with nearly half of Canada’s team playing there. Long term sustainability of good international teams depends on developing their own leagues and systems. They cannot rely upon England forever.
1 Go to commentsShe has a good sense of the perfect fly half but I agree with her mother about the disfiguring tattoos. I shall watch her progress with interest.
1 Go to commentsSurprised Ireland haven’t already nabbed Rayasi. So much competition in the back three in all NZ Super teams that you need a coach who believes in you and will select you regularly.
6 Go to commentsBath Fan acting all innocent, like Hill would just walk up and casually do that without a reason too 😂
3 Go to comments