The Springbok camp on Sunday night called up flyhalf Handre Pollard to their Rugby World Cup squad in France in place of injured hooker Malcolm Marx.
Pollard will join his teammates in Paris on Monday, after returning from a calf injury that ruled him out of the initial squad for his English club Leicester on Friday.
Of not bringing in a specialist hooker to replace Marx, coach Jacques Nienaber says: “We are confident with the cover we have at hooker with Bongi Mbonambi and Deon Fourie, and Marco van Staden has been slotting in the position since our alignment camps in February, so we opted to call up Handre, who has been in our system for years and who was a member of our team in 2019 when we won the World Cup.
BREAKING: Pollard called up to join the #Springboks in Paris - more here: https://t.co/BFF2glhLzY ✈#StrongerTogether #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/6T2UIStKY7
— Springboks (@Springboks) September 17, 2023
“He’s been working hard to return to full fitness, and we are pleased that he now has some game time under his belt for his club, and this will allow him to slot back into the team.
“We’ll work closely with him in the next week to get him back up to speed and back into the full swing of things, and we have no doubt he’ll step up to the challenge. He’s been here before so he knows the physical and mental demands of the World Cup.”
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