Handré Pollard has offered a simple but pointed message on Embrose Papier's Springbok prospects: stop thinking about selection and keep playing. Speaking ahead of the Bulls' URC clash against the Dragons, Pollard was effusive about Papier's form this season, describing him as an indispensable part of the Bulls' engine room — a point underlined by how badly the team struggled against the Stormers in his absence.
The piece argues that Papier is doing everything right but faces a brutally congested scrumhalf pool. Reinach, Williams, Hendrikse, Van den Berg, Pead, and the returning shadows of De Klerk and Jantjies all complicate the path. Still, the article's conclusion is that sustained form at this level — combined with a halfback partnership already built around Pollard — makes Papier increasingly hard to overlook. Worth reading for the broader picture it paints of the scrumhalf pecking order ahead of the international window.