Bulls' Willie Le Roux hails 'trooper' Handré Pollard ahead of Lions URC derby

It’s no surprise that the Bulls’ turnaround in fortunes has coincided with the timely return to form of experienced fly-half Handré Pollard.

Pollard had a rather poor start to life back in Pretoria, looking a little rusty and out of sync with his new teammates after rejoining the team after the Springboks' November tour.

It really looked like he was struggling to adapt to Johan Ackermann’s expansive game plan and things didn’t click. Pollard’s normally reliable tactical kicking was off, missing touch on a few occasions from penalties. His passing was also poor, shovelling a lot of balls behind his runners in the wide channels.

However, during their recent matches in Europe, when they adopted a more pragmatic approach in the wet and windy conditions against Pau in France and Edinburgh in Scotland, Pollard started to take control with the boot and started to look like the double World Cup winner he is.

The result was back-to-back wins that ended a seven-game losing streak across all competitions and renewed confidence heading into the business end of the United Rugby Championship, starting with Saturday’s SA derby against the Lions at Ellis Park (2.30pm kick-off).

Bulls and Springboks full-back Willie le Roux, who has been in the trenches with Pollard for more than a decade as international teammates, has hailed Pollard as “a proper trooper” and “a general” after the win in Scotland, which has reignited their URC play-off hopes.

Pollard played a significant part in the win over Edinburgh at the Hive Stadium, slotting a couple of shots at goal and helping provide the territorial foothold as the Bulls turned around a 17-5 half-time deficit.

“He’s my roommate, he’s a very relaxed guy. There’s not a lot of things that bother him,” Le Roux told the URC website.

“We have been playing together since 2014. It’s been a long time, so we understand each other. What a guy to have in your team, a proper trooper and a general.”

The 85-cap Springbok Pollard spent six years with the Bulls before having three-season spells in both France and England, with Montpellier and Leicester. Now he is back in Pretoria and looking to help the team climb the league table.

“We had a few disruptions coaching-wise throughout the start of the season, which is always difficult to control, but we are starting to bond as a group now and the fight shows in our game,” Le Roux said.

“There is a long way to go. We are not nearly as good as we want to be, but it’s a step in the right direction and hopefully we can build on this.”