Pollard was great, insists Meyer

Cape Town - Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer says he’s happy with the performance of some of his young players despite their Rugby Championship defeat to the Wallabies in Brisbane at the weekend.

The Boks had their hosts on the rack for an hour of the Test only to give up a 20-7 lead and go down 24-20 when Wallabies centre Tevita Kuridrani scored a try with almost 82 minutes on the clock.

Flyhalf Handre Pollard made mistakes, but the coach was pleased with his performance, as the efforts of midfielders Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel.

"It was an unbelievable performance by a lot of youngsters,” Meyer told Reuters.

"Jesse's first Test against two of the best centres in the world, I thought he was brilliant. Damian, for that matter as well, it was the first Test they had played together.

"Handre is only 21 years old, suddenly he's got two inexperienced centres outside him and is facing probably one of the best backlines in the world. That's tough on the youngster and he was great.

"Defensively he was superb, they really attacked that channel with their big ball carriers, and he will definitely improve and learn from this.

"I was worried about our first phase defence especially against a great backline, they really tested us with a lot of loops and run-arounds," he added.

"But our defence was brilliant and really kept them out right until the end."

The Boks’ next assignment is a home Test against the All Blacks in Johannesburg this Saturday (17:05 kick-off).