Handre Pollard has lifted the lid on how a half-time talk from Pieter-Steph du Toit inspired the Springboks to rise from the ashes in their World Cup semi-final in France.
Pollard was speaking during a wide-ranging interview with former Scotland lock Jim Hamilton on the Big Jim Show.
During the interview, the conversation turned to the 2023 World Cup semi-final against England in Paris, where Pollard slotted a late, long-range penalty to give the Springboks an incredible come-from-behind win.
In wet and windy conditions, the Springboks struggled to get any sort of momentum in the match and were 12-6 down at half-time.
However, the Boks made good use of their bench, with Pollard coming on after just 30 minutes, while the Bomb Squad of forwards dominated the scrum battle in the second half.
Pollard revealed that it was the usually softly-spoken Du Toit who lit a fire under his teammates during the interval to help inspire the comeback.
“Pieter-Steph [du Toit] had a few words to say at half-time and he is a guy who never really speaks a lot, so that was interesting and I think we needed it at the time,” said Pollard.
“It wasn’t a lot and it was in Afrikaans.
“He just got up and he basically told us: ‘Listen, we just got to wake up and we got to get fire under our arses. We just got to wake up and fight. Do we want to go home tomorrow or do want to be in this tournament and play in the final next week?’
“We were all thinking it, but no one was thinking it through at that moment.
“For a guy who is quite reserved to say that just really hit home for a lot of us and we got the reaction off the back of that.”
Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP
The post How Pieter-Steph inspired Bok comeback appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
