SPRINGBOKS: Siya Kolisi, Handre Pollard name the ‘most underrated’ Boks

Bok captain Siya Kolisi and flyhalf Handre Pollard, who were involved in both of South Africa’s title-winning World Cup campaigns in 2019 and 2023, recently appeared on Jim Hamilton’s The Big Jim Show, where they were each asked to pick out their most underrated Springboks.

While Kolisi also selected Le Roux as one of his unsung Bok heroes, he and Pollard both highlighted De Allende as a player deserving of more recognition.

“Damian de Allende and Willie Le Roux,” Kolisi said when asked the question.

“Do you know how many tries he [Le Roux] has created for the team?

“He always sees stuff long before [it happens].

“In my first game back after my knee injury against Wales, when I offloaded to Malcolm [Marx], while the play is happening, Willie is like ‘Siya come here, they’re going to shoot on you, I’m going to give it to you, you are going to go through’, it played out exactly how he said it.

“He gave it to me, I went through, the guys shot up, I offload to Malcolm over in the corner. Like he is crazy.”

Kolisi added: “So yeah, him and Damian.”

Hamilton posed the same question to Pollard, who agreed with Kolisi on De Allende.

“Yeah, it has got to be him. He gets a lot of criticism, but the thing is, we use him in a very specific way,” Pollard said.

“He’s got such a skill set which people don’t get to see every day. If you watch some of the games he plays in Japan, you will get a feel for what he can do.

“But he’s just a workhorse. The thing is, when it gets tough, he’s the guy who steps up every single time; it’s not the pretty stuff that he does, it’s the hard yards, and it’s got to be Damian de Allende in our team.”

South Africa kick off their 2024 test season in June when they face off against Wales at Twickenham Stadium before their two-match test series against Ireland and a one-off test against Portugal.