Paris — "It’s the right time‚" coach Allister Coetzee said‚ explaining Handré Pollard’s inclusion in the Springbok starting team to play France on Saturday. The coach needs a near miracle and he has introduced big-game players in Pollard and Duane Vermeulen to help lift his team’s flagging fortunes. Pollard‚ who suffered one orthopaedic mishap after the other since the beginning of the last season‚ will be in the starting team for the first time since the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Coetzee believes this is the moment to unleash the pivot who has been waiting in the wings for a start since he recovered from injury during the Rugby Championship. He did not cover himself in glory against the All Blacks in Albany in New Zealand but Pollard has since found his feet and replaces Elton Jantjies. "He is looking sharp at training‚" Coetzee noted. The coach needs his squad to be reinvigorated after last weekend’s defeat in Dublin and the inclusion of Pollard and Vermeulen is aimed at getting them ...
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