Swys De Bruin: Pollard still the GOAT
Behind the scenes of the Springboks: Swys de Bruin reveals his thoughts on the team's depth, the All Blacks' challenges, and the future of South African rugby.
Handre Pollard is the GOAT and should be treated as such argues coaching guru Swys de Bruin ahead of the Springboks' Rugby Championship Test against the All Blacks in Johannesburg.
Speaking in the latest 'To The Last Drop' rugby podcast with Brenden Nel and Liam Del Carme, De Bruin says Pollard's ice-in-the-veins exploits helped propel South Africa to successive Rugby World Cup titles.
De Bruin is in awe of the depth the Springboks have created in their player ranks. The Springboks have exposed more players to the Test arena this year and the emergence of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has brought fresh debate to the flyhalf position.
While he has no doubt Feinberg-Mngomezulu has a bright Bok future, De Bruin believes dimming the lights on Handre Pollard's Test career would be premature.
Though the Boks are likely to make significant changes to their team should they win in Johannesburg, De Bruin would be less liberal in the selection process ahead of the Test in Cape Town.
He anticipates a closely contested mini-series.
While he believes All Blacks remain worthy adversaries, the former Lions coach and Bok consultant contends not having South African exposure in Super Rugby Pacific will have a negative impact on New Zealand's rugby in the long run.
He also questions some of their selections, pointing out that former captain Sam Cane may be well past his best.
De Bruin has taken up a coaching role at SA Rugby in which he will help the SA Women's team but will also take up a mentoring role for coaches. For the full interview, listen to the podcast at the top of the page or directly below.
About the To The Last Drop podcast hosts
Liam Del Carme is one of the country's most enduring sports writers. His time in the newsrooms pre-dates rugby turning professional in the 1990s. Del Carme has been in the employ of broadsheet newspapers The Argus, Sunday Independent, This Day and Beeld, and is currently the rugby writer at The Sunday Times.
Del Carme has reported at six Rugby World Cups and around 20 Currie Cup finals.
He loves cooking and travel and is the author of the book 'WINGING IT – On tour with the Boks'. When time allows he is a television pundit and writes a regular column on timeslive.co.za under the title ‘The Worst of Times’.
Brenden Nel
Rugby has always been a passion for Brenden, so much so that he made it a career. Since first entering a newsroom at the Citizen almost three decades ago, he has written for some of the biggest titles in the world, including Rapport, the Independent (UK), The Times (UK), South China Morning Post and a host of others. Currently, he covers all things rugby for Supersport.com and has reported on no less than four World Cups, five Sevens World Cups and around 250 test matches in total.
Brenden is also the author of "Derick Hougaard - Dieware storie van Loftus se Liefling” and has a popular YouTube channel under his name. He loves nothing more when away from the game than a glass of good red wine, a good fire and spending time with his wife and four rescue dogs.