The last time Wales met the Springboks at the World Cup, the Duane Vermeulen-Fourie du Preez double act off the back of a scrum resulted in a late try that sent the Boks into the last four.
The duo were rightly lauded for their brilliant work that day four years ago, but it was the unheralded contribution of the fly-half Handré Pollard that ensured the 75th-minute try was ultimately a match-winning score.
Pollard, then 21 and only 15 months into his Test career, was a model of composure as he landed five penalties and a drop-goal. His accuracy from the tee and serene composure went a long way to the Boks advancing to the semi-finals where they ultimately came up two points short against the eventual champions New Zealand.
On Sunday, the 25-year-old Pollard will again lead the Boks line in a World Cup semi-final. The opposition might be different and the context completely different too, but Pollard’s job remains central to South Africa’s chances of winning.
Since that 2015 setback, Wales have won four in a row against South Africa. The only way for the Springboks to prevent that sequence extending to five defeats, is for Pollard to rise to the levels he displayed at Twickenham 48 months ago.
A lot has happened to the fly-half since then, which cost him a great deal of time on the field. Soon after the 2015 tournament, Pollard sustained a shoulder injury playing club rugby in Japan.
He nursed the injury and started the 2016 Super Rugby pre-season with the Bulls in Pretoria. On a hot midweek afternoon, Pollard received a pass in training and planted his foot incorrectly. His body weight, coupled with momentum, snapped his anterior cruciate ligament. His season was over.
“I decided to have an operation on my right shoulder soon after the knee, seeing as I was out for months anyway,” Pollard told me in an interview last year.
“But I contracted a bug in the hospital and the shoulder became infected. Then came the real complications, which made me really think about life.
“It got to the point where the doctors raised the subject of amputating my arm, although it wasn’t an immediate option. I spent six weeks in hospital, pumped full of antibiotics about seven hours a day.”
The medication worked and the infection cleared. But it was an experience that put life into perspective for a player who was the “chosen one” of South Africa rugby.
From his schoolboy days as a starlet to steering the Junior Boks to the 2012 U20 World Championship title as an 18-year-old, to being named as 2014 World Junior Player of the Year ahead of England’s Maro Itoje, Pollard has always been destined for greatness.
But greatness has eluded him despite some standout performances at the highest level of the game. Injuries and the inconsistency of Springbok rugby since the last World Cup, have made Pollard understand that his potential and promise are not guarantees of senior success.
On Sunday against Wales though, he has the chance to move closer to the greats of the game.
The two packs are brutally physical and both Wales and the Boks play a territory-based game, relying on their strong set pieces, or brutal gainline dominance to force opposition mistakes in the right areas of the field.
Given that the sides are so evenly matched up front, the backlines could be the point of difference. Pollard gave off an air of quiet confidence in Yokohama on Friday, knowing that his performance on Sunday, his role and his execution, could define the contest for South Africa.
“It’s going to be an interesting chess match,” Pollard said. “The two teams will feel each other out tactically in the first 20 minutes and from there it will be about applying the pressure and converting it into points.
“I don’t think that Wales are known for their flair. They can be relentless in terms of implementing their gameplan.
“When they control the set piece and enforce their kicking game, they can start to suffocate you. We have to be careful about falling into that trap.”
Pollard is a big unit, nearly 100kg. He will take the ball to the line and test opposite number Dan Biggar. The outcome could be decided by one score and neither side is going to want to play inside their own half.
There are too many good goal-kickers on the field waiting for a chance to kick penalties that will inevitably come.
Pollard has to steer the Boks into the right parts of the field where his natural ability, vision and skill can give the two-times world champions a better than even chance of winning. All he needs is a platform from the forwards to pull the strings on the stage on which he was born to perform.
Craig Ray is a Cape Town-based sports writer and part of the Guardian’s experts’ network at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
