The following from News24:-
Two continents, three clubs and a new language. South African-born Paul Willemse has taken the long route to potentially making his debut for France in Friday's Six Nations opener against Wales.
Willemse arrived on French soil in 2014 as a 21-year-old a matter of weeks after losing a Currie Cup semi-final with the Blue Bulls, and little did he know five years later he would be days away from wearing an international blue shirt.
The 2012 world champion with the Baby Boks headed to French outfit Grenoble the day after he married his childhood sweetheart.
"The day after our marriage, we left for Grenoble. It was our honeymoon," Willemse told AFP.
It all could have been very different as the club's former coach Bernard Jackman explained the 2.01m (6ft 7in) giant was one of two options he was considering for the next campaign.
"We had pretty much finished recruitment for the season and two days before the deadline Fabrice Landreau (sporting director) said to me the president had given us extra money for a lock," Jackman said.
"We had two guys on the radar, one of them was Willemse and the other was Argentina's Tomas Lavanini. By the time I got back to Lavanini, he had already signed for Racing 92. So I was left with Willemse so we got the deal done quickly."
At the end of his first season Willemse moved to Montpellier and some clear differences between daily French and South African life stood out more than others.
"It was the first time I had seen a woman walk alone at 10 o'clock in the night and children taking the bus alone," he said.
"My family have a lot of freedom here to live a good life, to play in a park or just take the bus. It's a really good thing for us," he added.
Willemse decided on becoming the 11th South African-born player to wear the famous blue jersey in 2017.
"At the start I wanted to play for two years in France, gain experience and then go back to South Africa," he said.
"But the birth of my son changed my mind. Once I knew it was possible to play for France it became my 100% goal," he added.
A hurdle to his international ambitions came when French Rugby Federation president Bernard Laporte announced a French passport was needed to represent the country in addition to the three years of residency required by World Rugby regulations.
Gaining his citizenship in November was the last of Willemse's endeavours to assimilate with his new countrymen.
"I want people to respect all the effort I have put into learning French and to integrate," he said.
"I think everyone can understand that but if not it's not serious.
"And kissing people you don't know on both cheeks is strange," he added.
The Irishman who brought Willemse to France believes the second-row was destined to play Test rugby and compares him to another South African titan who spent a period in the French league with Toulon.
"I think if he wasn't playing for France he would be playing for South Africa. I do think he's an international lock," Jackman said.
"He's the nearest thing I've seen to Bakkies Botha, he has that quality, that kind of aggression, that's rare to have both and I'm delighted for him."
Willemse could make the next step in his rugby career in the French capital on Friday more than 8 000km from where it all started with his pregnant wife and son watching on."
The first thing I can remembe4r about Willemse was in the 2012 Under 20 WC Final when he cause a major havoc by being red-carded for pulling the dreadlocks of a NZ player. The Under 2- SA team won the game despite the red card. On the whole Willemse did well enough in the series to identify himself as a potential Springbok.
By 2014 Willemse playing for the Bulls ran into a total road block when it came to his future as a potential Springbok of the future. Etzebeth was the number 4 - a position in which Willemse played for the Bulls - and his potential selection to play for the Springboks was blocked by the rank idiocy of Meyer and Ludeke to use Matfield at lock.
Willemse then signed a two-year contract with Grenoble and announced that he still have ambitions to play for the Springboks and would come back to SA in 2016 so as to qualify for future selection for the Springboks. His absence from contention made way for De Jager - with a top class WC performance after Matfield failed as expected - caused the gap to be selected by 2016 to be closed.
Instead of coming back to SA in 2016 as announced by himself - he signed a contract with Montpellier for which club he was playing over the past two years. Out of sight in his case resulted in being out of mind. Coetzee never selected him at lock and Erasmus - fully aware of the performances of SA players in Europe - did not pick Willemse in his initial training programme. Erasmus was faced by a further problem insofar as team selection is concerned - he actually have had an over-supply of contending locks and he went for Mostert, Du Toit, Snyman and ultimately Schickerling as locks.. There was no space in the hierarchy for Willemse,
Erasmus used predominantly Etxebeth, Mostert, Du Toit and Snyman at lock since De Jager was injured, Before injury Erasmus remarked that his ideal lock combination would be Etzebeth and De Jager. On n interim measure he used Mostert at lock for most matches and when the loosie crisis hit hard - he moved D u Toit to blindside flank. However, De Jager is back and Schickerling is knocking on the door, So the door for Willemse to play for the Springboks remained closed.
Willemse would have been a good Springbok selection - his only negative being a tendency to have disciplinary lapses in games - but I am afraid his road to Springbok selection was closed by 2014 and one can only wish him well for selection to play for France and a distinguished test career playing for France.
