He has obtained his French citizenship and may be in the French squad for the 6-Nations next year. I do not think that with the SA locks available - Erasmus rated him high enough for Springbok call up. He may have been one of the players whom Erasmus referred to when he remarked on SA players making international teams of the NH and even in the USA and Japan. He wished them well playing for foreign teams.
He will never play, as he will get his first cap in the 6 nations for France. It is a done deal
Mozart
Another dream of Mozart that will lead to zero. Two number 4 locks and a near to zero 7 - who was tried out by the Lions and the experiment failed. But then get rid of the performing players and bring in the static ones.
I wish him well - but I agree with Erasmus - not good enough to play for SA. By the way when last did you actually see this guy play? Was it in 2013 or 2014?
What do you know about his performance at all? Near to zero I am afraid,
Willemse was available during Meyer's time ... however, he preferred the elderly Matfield and Bakkies.
Haaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaaa!!
Just another missed opportunity by the cowardly coach. One of many I may add.
Willemse knew he had no future here ... not as a white man ... and not while Meyer made a hash of everything he touched, with dreams of reliving the Bulls glory days.
Deluded fool!!
Stander also saw that the cowardly twit was ignorant ... and so went abroad to further his career elsewhere. He became the winner of many awards abroad ... even finding his way into the starting 15 as a test player ... and I suspect we'll see the same from Paul Willemse.
I wonder ... did Meyer every find his integrity??
Mozart
Why is Erasmus criticized for not selecting Willemse ahead of Etzebeth- who in June did well in one test and then started under-performing in subsequent tests
No coach in his right mind would move Etzebeth from 4 to 5 - where there are three other lock contenders in the form of De Jager, Schickerling and Du Toit available. , Erasmus apparently also found Snyman as a better option at 4 ahead of Willemse.
Now Mostert comes up with the nonsense that Mostert as incumbent is comparable with the Willemse-Etzebeth situation. Mostert was selected at 5 because of the fact De Jager was not available to play in tests virtually for the full test season and there was a crisis at 7 resulting in Du Toit moving to that position, I think by the end of Super Rugby the physically deficient Mostert will not be on the scene anymore.
CC is right - Willemse was ignored by Meyer because of his rugby geriatrics selection approach. while Coetzee was not capable to select any players and stick with them for any length of time, He had the opportunity to select Willemse and did not do so. Willemse realized that under Meyer no chance of playing for the Springboks and when he departed for France in 2014 he stated that he will come back in 2016 so as to contend for Springbok selection. When he became aware the change from Meyer to Coetzee did not mean the end of selection idiocy - he went from his original club to Montpellier in 2016 and did not return to SA in accordance with his 20 14 statement.
The latest attack is that Erasmus is to be blamed for the fiasco - even the attackers never saw Willemse playing for years. The question is - is Willense better than Etzebeth and Snyman? I doubt it very much.. .
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaaa!!
I don't really read much of Mozart's posts these days as it's usually filled with ignorance and biased stupidity.
As is the case once again ... Etzebeth moved to 5 is about as bad as Marx to 7 or Alberts to 6.
Ignorance beyond the word.
Does the man understand anything about rugby?
He sure thinks he does.
I'm not sure who's worse ... Poepol or Moffie ... constantly mouthing off ... showing their utter ignorance and lack of understanding.
They really are well suited as a couple.
Willemse when i last saw him playing for the Bulle was powerful but slow. Not the athletes we have in Eben, Lood, Snyman. Mostert is physically a flank so i exclude him from the comparison.Would like to see him play to see where he is..
Pity that another good player has been lost to SA Rugby. Playing for France and a French club must be FAR more lucrative than playing in SA. Willemse has made the right choice for himself unfortunately for us.
So he was barred by quota players ... Piece of news since SA do not train those.
Or maybe the SA white players who barred him were deemed quota too. Honourary quota players. Would explain the magic behind the quota policy in SA.
Mozart
We all know Meyer's deficiencies - which you ignored. He had a good average up tp the RC in 2014 and then he self-destructed in his last year as a coach primarily causing it himself by his totally delusional selections and a game plan that was totally out of date in the WC. He neded up with SARU refusing to renew his contract and the reasons for that was clear.
No Mozart
Under Meyer we went down to 6th and then recover to third because of the minnows played in the WC. and the early demise of Ireland and of England and ultimately Wales in the WC = Erasmus has never lost a game against Japan and not a home game against Argentina as yet. Also he did not lose all of the RC games like Meyer did in 2015. And he won an away game agaionst the AB's something Meyer never achieved. .
What is disappointing is that this season does have shades of 2014, but for all the wrong reasons. Meyer had a more expansive model which lacked punch up front to support it on tour up north. He also backed a dud midfield, but pets not go there. Rassie's Boks are playing a highly conservative power game where kicking launches everything. It didn't work. Those are core Bok strengths, and we still can't impose them, even when our pack is grinding the opposition to dust. This is the first time since 2013 we've had such dominance up front. So, Rassie must find a way to expand the Bok game, or we are going to be trending down. I haven't seen a Boks side provide so little quality ball for the outside backs. Our wings are having to hack the ball upfield to give themselves some space. Not good.
Mike the Boks lost 3 RC games in 2015. One away to Australia, due to Damian, and one at home to New Zealand. That's comparable with this year's results. Argentina is the odd one, but they have come close many times before. On their game, they can beat the Boks, as we saw when they annihilated the Boks this year. We did beat them twice later in 2015, one a thumping win to avenge the loss.
Duplication
No excuses - the Boks lost the tests against Australia away in 2012, 2104 and 2015. So it was not unaccepted for them to lose the one in 2015. The greatest scandal was losing in Perth in 2014 caused by the extremely poor Morne Steyn.
Fact is there was no real indication that De Allende caused the Aussie loss. It was the first test that Pollard, De Allende and Kriel played as a 10-12-13 competition and to blame De Allende alone is lunacy. Between the three of them they missed 12 tackles. and that alone indicates a lack of co-ordination by the three players.
Your description of the Meyer game plan is another of your many fantasy dreams on things that never happened. There was no Meyer "expansive model" in any tests since 2012 as in the first instance Morne Steyn made any such model impossible to work. When he was finally replaced by Pollard in the 2014 test against the AB's there was indeed a one test wonder when Polalrd playing an entire different game - scored 2 tries and set up a third. But Pollard was soon brought under control and he was dropped by Meyer and replaced by Lambie in two of the EOYT tests. This change was accessioned by the total destruction of pollard's game by meyer - whow anted him to paly thes ame game as Morne did. Pollard did play in the 2015 RC and WC after the Japan disaster - but the spark was totally gone amnd that was entirely the result of what Meyer did to him.
On the whole Meyer brought back Pollarsd in 2015 in three tests and was forced to play him when Lambie was off injured, The real reason for the Japan disaster home test lost was obviously De Allende - he did not play in the test - it was De Villiers come back test from injury and he was obviously not up to standard. So the absence of De Allende was the main reason for the loss.
De Villiers did not play in the succeeding tests until the Japan disaster in the WC - where he messed up too. An early injury against Samoa - took him totally out of the rugby scene in SA. He was a great player in his prime - by 2014 he was just about average and he should never have made a comeback from the 2014 major injury.
I love your daydreams about Meyer's expansive model. It could not work with Morne - the regular flyhalf till 2014 and vanished totally in the WC series. Where I do agree was the story is "the lack of punch up front" . The reason for that was the return of Matfield to the Tight 5 - reducing it to a Tight 4. It was idiocy in supreme and the fact is that the Matfield replacement was a blessing in disguise. The door was opened for the inclusion of the Etzebeth - De Jager lock combination = that returned the punch of the forwards. However, the WC game plan for 2015 was totally destructive and not one to be proud of. There was zero "expansive model" in that,
