What to do with Willemse

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Oct 23, 2024, 14:02

As many of you know is that I'm not Willemse biggest fan as I believe he is seriously overhyped. He is nowhere near the class of Frans Steyn. Speaking of the latter, he had really dumb coaches around him such De Villiers and Meyer. It was only Rassie that truly understood his value. That said, Steyn also had a big attitude which Willemse doesn't have which is great to see how humble he is. 


My bug bear is that I just don't like he playes. He reminds me of players that has great skills but no-one can play off him. At least with Jantjies, his players knew what he was going to do and how to run off him. 


Willemse had an awful game in the wet at 10 and as a result we lost. One week later and he is back at 10 and get the MoM, gets all of his kicks and a cheeky drop goal. The backline still looked disfunctional as he continues to take the ball up in contact and doing his chicken step dance. 


For me his best positing is the bench to be honest. 


Lets look at where he could be used 


10 - We have Pollard and Libbok, Sasha is also making waves in that position and not to mention Hendrikse who is starting to show his value. So as a 10 starter, no


12 - Dud the tractor keeps being selected and I don't think they'll drop him, Esterhuizen is back and Am has been used at 12, then we have the young Ethan Hooker who is an absolute animal, bigger and faster than Willemse. So he is not a started at 12 for me. 


15 - Probably the only position for me where he could start. However, Fassi has shown how good he really is and with Willie still hanging around, who would you want to start. Fassi or Willemse. Fassi has gone up several notches on his defence and his kicking is top class. His biggest strength is taking the high ball. Reminds of Israel Folua. Then his pace, Fassi has unreal pace, not that Willemse is slow. To me, I would start Fassi. 


So Willemse is the perfect number 23 player but I can't see him being a starter other than 15

Oct 23, 2024, 14:17

Today I watched the Quarter final again vs France and boy oh boy are you wrong about Willemse.

He is excellent in management from the back, he links really well and creates space for his fellow players , his roaming abilities and cover defence, is ten times better than Fassi, his attacking capabilities out of nothing is world class.

Make no mistake Fassi is great under the High ball and he can run great lines, but so can Willemse.

Willemse is definitely the incumbent at 15 and his versatility, allows him to play top notch games at 10 to.

10 might not be his strong suit at all, but look no further than his mom performance for the stormers that you just mentioned in the pivot position.

He is world class and rightfully our incumbent at 15. Not so Fassi needs to seriously pick up his game, if he wants to surpass Willemse.

Oct 23, 2024, 14:38

Damian Willemse is already better than Frans Steyn ever was . . . unless your game plan is to win the game with drop kicks and penalties from your own half . . . and even then . . .

Oct 23, 2024, 15:12

It's good point you raise, King.

But with the perpetual musical chairs that has become our selection policy, who knows where Willemse will play.

I get rotation policies, but we honestly don't need to keep fiddling with the backs as much as we do.

Who knows which one of the gazillion scrummies we'll select next. Will Manie play but never kick for poles again? Why is Esterhuizen there when he never gets to play an important game? Is Am a 12 now? Is Mapompi still in the reckoning or does he just get a game here and there because reasons?

I keep hearing that Boks stand on the precipice of a golden era. But when the Kiwis had their golden era, they knew what their best side was. So did we. So did everyone else.

We've won 2 WCs in a row and it's still anybody's guess who Rassie thinks his BIP from 9 to 15.

I guess DDA is his favourite. And the fact that DDA is his favourite tells us why he doesn't actually know what his best backline is. It's like the backs have always been an afterthought. The one guy that he always picks is the one guy that basically plays the role of a forward in the backline.

...everybody else is just meh.

Oct 23, 2024, 20:25

Willemse is an unbelievable player, he is far far more gifted than Frans Steyn ever was and Frans was very good

Frans was big and physical but had zero zip, Willemse has it all - dancing feet, strength and great hands

Play him at 15 for now with a view to moving him to 12 sooner than later with Fassi at 15 and Moodie or Jurenzo Julius at 13

Oct 23, 2024, 21:38

I wonder if we had a back 3 of Willemse, Fassi and Moodie. All tall, fast and big players, super skillful. Then we have Arendse, that can come on in the last 20 min. Kolbe is still around, so we have options. But we need to pick a starting 15. 

NZ lost in 2007 because they had 30 world class players and did the same rotation shit. Jake said before the world cup that the players don't know who is number one and it created doubt. In the end they got bounced by a French forward pass, but that team should have beaten France by 20 points. 

Then in 2011 they picked their best side and they won back to back world cups from the same squad. 

They came undone by dropping their most experience players in 2019 for the Jordy Barret when Ben Smith was still class. They drew the lions series and then got knocked in the semis. 

That All Black era was insane. I don't think we'll ever see a crop of players like that again. SA come close, but not that dominance 

Oct 24, 2024, 12:35

I would play Willemse at 12, or off the bench. Delande "might" not make the next World Cup. 

Willemse has a lot of utility value, but I won't put him in the same league as Frans Steyn in his prime years. When Steyn was 20-24 he was a candidate of world player of the year. 

Oct 24, 2024, 13:31

No Frans had a great WC then failed to really assert himself probably no thanks to being played in different positions each week

I’d take Willemse over Frans

 
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