Like a young Michael Murphy.
Handre Pollard booted one up into the sky and by his body language alone, you could tell that there was something on. The follow through was graceful.
His sprightly step took him immediately forward as the swerving ball arrowed into the Yokohama night sky. The camera couldn’t keep up to it, this one was after scaling the International Stadium.
Now, it’s looking down. Handre Pollard only had eyes for the ball. The South African ten breezed through a field of England bodies and you could sense there was something on.
Another look up. Another look forward. This one is on target.
It’s Pollard – one of the biggest and bulkiest fly halves in the game up against his opposite number. George Ford is much smaller than Pollard and in reality, he never stood a chance here.
And that’s when the South African channelled his inner Gaelic footballer. Without breaking stride, he ate the ground up and gracefully leapt into the night sky.
Took it with a twirl and brought it down as one of the catches of this World Cup.
The most glorious catch of this World Cup 😍😍pic.twitter.com/D4ecvKTvkk
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 2, 2019
Phenomenal stuff from Pollard. A joy to watch in a error-strewn game. England, apparently shell shocked by the early loss of Kyle Sinckler, were dropping balls and committing fouls.
It was the complete opposite to what we’d seen from them against the All Blacks. South Africa didn’t do anything special, apart from this Pollard masterpiece but they still did capitalise.
Penalties and punished mistakes.
