Boy to Man
Handré Pollard laughs when he’s asked to reflect on his experience at the 2015 World Cup.
“What a young, stupid little boy I was,” he tells SA Rugby magazine. “Don’t get me wrong. I know I’m still a young guy. I don’t pretend to know everything there is to know about the game.
“However, when I think back to how much I learned at that World Cup and about how much I have learned on and off the field since 2015, I realise how far I’ve come as a player and as a person.”
Back then, Pollard had the weight of a nation on his 21-year-old shoulders. He’d been backed by Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer to start regularly in the 2014 and 2015 Rugby Championships.
He’d been talked up by fans, teammates and opposition coaches – All Blacks mentor Steve Hansen chief among them – as the next big thing for South African rugby.
Some even started speaking about Pollard
