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Handre Pollard

Wow!! How dramatic and thrilling it was to close out the 2023 Rugby World Cup Final in the 47th & final match of the six-week tournament at Paris’s Stade De France where one of the two almighty nations will become the first 4 x Webb Ellis Cup winners – All Blacks & the Springboks. The first half has been full of penalty kicks where the Boks led the way from the beginning & while the ABs have caught them up at times, but then they lost skipper Sam Cane for the rest of this match due to a high jaw tackle on Jesse Kriel – which was initially seen as a yellow card before being upgraded to red by the referee Wayne Barnes. Half-time: 6-12. Although the ABs may have scored the one & only TRY by closing in on the Boks by just a single point later during the 2nd half. Unfortunately, not only they struggled to get away these kicks between the sticks from a difficult & long range, but they also couldn’t find a way to get past a scrambled Boks defense before it was too late. Despite no 2nd half score & seeing both skipper Siya Kolisi & Cheslin Kolbe sitting in the naughty chair, the Boks held on their one-point buffer really well en route towards their 4th World Championship title after full-time, 11-12.

Pieter-Steph Du Toit is one of the Boks’ most important players out there thanks to an all-round display in the Openside role at No.7. He’s extremely tall who did well to limit the All Blacks’s attacking play while he puts his body on the line through their wall every time the Boks have the ball on hand, which shows how much they need him so badly as the longer they hold on, the better it will be to see light at the end of the tunnel that saw the ABs struggle under pressure. Next up Handre Pollard ends up as the No.1 kicker and No.10 player for the World Championship winning Boks team. He’s an excellent team member who can give them everything as his kicking conversion accuracy was spot on as always thanks to these winning penalties, even though all the points his side has accrued has been three-point kicks. Both of them have been stronger as ever that reflects the Bokke’s rebuild from the top since 2018-19 whereas nearly all of their four original Super Rugby franchises now ply in Europe – congrats on being the first team to lift 4 x Webb Ellis Cup trophies now in Rugby World Cup history.

And Mark Telea rounds off the Top 3, having done the best he can to try and get the All Blacks over the line on the wide right at No.14. He’s an excellent communicator who backs up really well as being tested both in attack & defense before Mark was able to make good use of the ball such as the pace including these 1 v 1 battles against defenders that saw him found the quick ball assist to fellow Blues player Beauden Barrett with the team’s only big score. Sadly, ill-discipline has hit them very hard where the ABs were so behind before they couldn’t get it done under pressure in the end as runners-up.

After 47 games over the last six weeks, the 2023 Rugby World Cup has come to a close as we look forward to the next World Cup edition in four years time at our own backyard in Australia. It’s been great seeing the Southern Hemisphere teams dominate once again despite some early round defeats against 1-2 best Northern sides out there including some first-time moments from the Tier 2 nations, such as Portugal’s win v Fiji 23-24 in Pool C & Uruguay def. Namibia 36-26 in Pool A respectively. Now we’re going to swap the Gilbert rugby ball with a cricket bat and ball for the summer as always following a long season this year before we go back all again beginning with a brand new season of Super Rugby in February 2024 followed by the Wallabies & Club Rugby (Shute Shield & QLD Hospital Cup) campaigns during the 2nd half of the year.

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Brilliant first-half performance from both the Wallabies and Springboks at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane with a three-point difference at the half-time break 15-12.

Wallabies fired off very well courtesy of a double score from Len Ikitau in the midfield but need to improve their discipline especially when Lachie Swinton was slapped with a yellow card in the 33rd min if they want to leave this battle v Boks undefeated 2-0.

Boks, on the other hand, has won a few penalties where Handre Pollard at fly-half successfully converted a couple of penalty goals into the post but South Africa needs to be patient through the executions & cut the ill-discipline/lost penalties that would ultimately dictate this match.

In the end, the Wallabies had a complete performance when they may have lost the lead at one point just after the break but turned around thanks to a few fresh faces off the bench as well as Taniela Tupou’s all-round play & Marika Koroibete’s double TRY.

And the Boks may have stolen the lead at one point just after the break courtesy of Faf De Klerk’s little cross-kick to Lukhanyo Am but unable to kick on when their attack continues to lack the consistent execution as well as more ill-discipline that prevented them from closing in the Wallabies.

Full-Time: Wallabies 30-17 Springboks

Wallabies ended their two-match meeting this year with the Boks as undefeated alongside the series win which saw them regain the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate as they have two more games left v Los Pumas from Argentina over the next two weeks.

The Springboks have two tough weeks to prepare v All Blacks going into the closing stages of this tournament, they are just five points behind them right now pending on the All Blacks’ result v Argentina later on but should the men in black lose then the Boks are not out of the running just yet.

Watch this space going into the last two weeks of the 2021 Rugby Championship.

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Taniela Tupou played 78 minutes tonight on the tighthead role for the Wallabies where he was so impressive all-around in front of his Queensland Reds home ground at Suncorp Stadium.

He read well with so much physicality to hold back the Springboks’ attacking opportunities before Taniela lend his hand to his backline especially when he communicates & links up the support play that saw Marika Koroibete safeguard this match.

Next up within the Wallabies camp is Marika Koroibete who was electric on the wide left as he made some great runs into the Boks territory when starting up the attack & managed to execute very well with the help of his decoy runners which is reflected in his 2nd half-performance.

It’s so important to know what his strengths are based on his Rugby League & Super Rugby experience where he’s blessed to wear the green the gold for a few years now, Marika will continue to control the entire pitch going into age 30 next year as long as the players come in to help him like we’ve seen with Taniela Tupou having been born & raised in Fiji.

And Handre Pollard had a great first-half performance with his kicking prowess into the goal for the Springboks at No.10 that kept them in contention thanks to a couple of successful three-point penalties.

However, the Boks weren’t able to kick on despite leading at one point just after half-time when they just can’t find their rhythm such as the executions being disjointed as well as more ill-discipline that saw Pollard being isolated which reflects the away team’s regress in the end.

#AUSvRSA #Rugby #RugbyUnion #RugbyChampionship #MarikaKoroibete #HandrePollard #TanielaTupou #Wallabies #Springboks

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