Cheslin backs Damian to just get better

Damian Willemse may be the player on everyone’s lips at the moment, but his teammate Cheslin Kolbe has backed him to become even better.

Kolbe, who at one stage played a bit with Willemse at the Stormers, and now at the Springboks, believes the best part of his career still lies ahead of him, especially after his performance in the 32-29 win over Wales in the first test on Saturday.

Willemse moved from fullback to flyhalf, took over kicking duties and excelled, putting over the crucial kick that won the game.

Given his history of having his kicking influence his game at the Stormers, the cool head was a masterstroke to see for the Bok management team, who are backing him to become a utility back in the long term for the side.

"He's been an incredible player since he left school, and he's developed very quickly and very well," Kolbe said.

"He was 18, coming out of school and he was thrown into the deep end. It's great to see how he's matured and got to grips with the experience of playing at the highest level.

"He's still young and he's still learning, but there's a lot more that he can offer to South African rugby, so I was excited with his performance.

“I’m sure he will get even better,” Kolbe ended up saying.

While the Boks' second-half performance brought them back from 18-3 down to score 29 points in the second half, Kolbe admitted their opening half wasn’t anywhere near their own standards.

"We'll stick to what we trained on during the week and I'll agree, the first 20 minutes, we probably weren't on par with the way we wanted to play," Kolbe said.

"We just needed to believe in what we needed to do on the field. We looked each other in the eyes and agreed the first half wasn't good enough at all.

"We knew it and we could feel it as well. There were a few harsh words from the coaches, but we're all grown-up men and want to make each other proud on the field."

Jacques Nienaber, the Bok coach, also praised Willemse after the game.

“I thought Damian did well,” Nienaber said afterwards.

“As we said during the week, he is a ‘project’ and he has been a project since 2018.We’ve slowly been giving him more confidence and game time in what we want him to do. I said in the week, he is probably our next Frans Steyn – covering No 10, No 12 and No 15.

“Today he had to cover No 10 and No 15 for us and I think he did it excellently. We came back from 3-18 [down at halftime] and I said to the guys afterwards that they never gave up. They stayed calm and composed and got the job done.”