Handre Pollard explains why Springboks aren't greatest ever team

Handre Pollard has claimed that the current crop of Springboks will need to work harder if they want to be labelled the greatest of all time. The Springboks made it back-to-back Rugby World Cup wins last year in France and they followed that up by winning this year’s Rugby Championship trophy.

However, Pollard believes consistency between World Cup tournaments is still something they need to work on if they want to be remembered as the best.

The 30-year-old believes the All Blacks team between 2011 and 2015 under Steve Hansen set the benchmark high. That team only lost three matches between World Cups.

“That is 100 per cent for other people to judge,” Pollard told Dan Cole and Ben Youngs on the latest episode of the For The Love Of Rugby podcast. “My personal opinion is that we are not there yet. We want to be and we are going to try our very best, but that 2011 to 2015 All Blacks team is still the best team ever.

“The thing is we just need consistent success. We have done well in the World Cups. However, it’s about consistently winning Rugby Championships between World Cups and winning series.

“We are in Europe now and we are trying to three out of three. That is the kind of stuff that makes you one of, if not, the greatest team ever. We still got a little bit to go there, I feel. It’s definitely not something we speak about.

“We just want consistency. With developing young players and rotation, that is going to be hard, but we believe we can do that and still get the results. It’s going to be tough, but we are on our way.”