Damian Willemse Insider: Old-fashioned values with a new-age work ethic

If you do a study of Springbok rugby players and others who make it to the topflight in the sport, you will discover that a large percentage of them were helped by being the youngest in a family of male siblings.

Sometimes there were a couple of older brothers, as was the case with former international prop Robbi Kempson growing up in Queenstown. Or you needed just one, with an example being the 1990 Bok and Sharks midfield legend Pieter Muller, who grew up playing in the park opposite their Bloemfontein home with a significantly older brother in Helgard Muller, who also played for his country.

Damian Willemse, who is set to play a crucial role for the Springboks as he takes the No 10 jersey for their clash with the world No 1 team, Ireland, in Dublin on Saturday, is one of those players. Former Stormers hooker Ramone Samuels, who turns 28 on the day of writing this piece, 3 November, was the older brother that Willemse learned and sponged so much off in his embryonic years.

Many people think Samuels and Willemse, nearly four years his junior at 24, are half-brothers, probably because of the difference in surnames. But Samuels confirms that they are in fact full brothers.

“I took my mother’s surname because we had a very strict granny and she insisted I take my mother’s surname as I was born out of wedlock,” explains Samuels.

“She was a very strict lady. That is why I have my mother’s surname, and everyone else in the family is a Willemse. There are now very few Samuels on the family tree.”

AGE DIFFERENCE DIDN’T HOLD WILLEMSE BACK

The four-year difference between Samuels and his younger brother didn’t prevent Willemse from participating fully in the games played by Samuels and his contemporaries.

“We grew up together and Damian was always hanging around with myself and my mates. I think that playing with guys much older and bigger than him helped a lot with his development, and I remember him from a young age playing beach touch rugby with us,” said Samuels.

“In fact, at the age of 13, he was one of the youngest to ever play pro beach touch rugby. That was in the beach tournaments organised over the festive period by Spar and All Gold. He always had a mature attitude about him because he was playing with guys much older. I was 17 by then and playing first team at Paul Roos.”

Having a brother who achieved at senior school and age-group level played a part in setting Willemse on his drive to become a successful rugby player.

“Every Saturday he’d come with my dad, Fanie, in a taxi to watch me play. That was where he was exposed to where he wanted to be. The other guys of his age wanted to play in the streets and play video games, but Damian was always adventurous and ambitious and he wanted the life at Paul Roos and the Markotter field.

“He came with my dad to the Grant Khomo Week in Upington in 2010 (provincial schools under-16 tournament), and again the following year when he was in Grade 7 he came to my first Craven Week in Kimberley, and the year after that to the one at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in the Eastern Cape.

“He was always exposed to prestige tournaments, his exposure to Craven Week would have sparked his desire to play there himself. It made him hungry to get to the level where he could be like me and play in the big rugby weeks and sample that atmosphere. He saw the prestige that came with it and he wanted that. And as a result, he worked hard on his game. During his holidays he’d train with me rather than mess around with his friends. He was driven by strong ambition from a very young age.”

WHAT RAMONE’S MISSING OUT ON MIGHT BE A DRIVER

Stormers head coach John Dobson believes the bond between Willemse and Samuels as siblings is a strong driver in Willemse’s motivation to be the best he can be and to live his rugby career to the fullest. He feels Willemse is trying to make up what Ramone missed out on through the foot injury that cut his own promising career tragically short.

“I will never forget that moment in a match during a pre-season tour of France in 2018 that Ramone’s career was effectively ended,” recalls Dobson.

“I have absolutely no doubt that Ramone would have gone on to become a Springbok himself. He was that good. But sadly the nerve injury in his foot cut his career short in his early 20s. Neither of them will say it, but I think for both of them Damian is making up for what Ramone may have missed out on.”

Dobson has long been quite vocal in his admiration for Willemse as a human being, as well as his loyalty, and sums it up thus: “When I first came across Damian I was hugely in awe of what he did on the field, of his ability as a player, but I am honest when I say that that has changed, it is now his work ethic and his value system, what he contributes as an allround human being, that I see as being even more impressive and valuable.”

Dobson said what made Willemse interesting was how he packaged the apparent contradictions of old-school values together with his ambition that drives his professionalism.

“Very early in his career, it was possibly his first exposure to senior rugby, Damian came with us (Western Province) to Kimberley. It was a late game, so I looked for something for the team to do on a Saturday morning. We went to that old mine museum, and then the players had the option of going over that bridge to that viewpoint of the Big Hole where the workers are commemorated.

“A couple of the coaches committed to part with the payment that was needed to do that, but after a long morning the other players may have been tired of it, so they didn’t pay the R50 that I think was needed. Damian was the only player who did, and as an 18-year-old he had this massive book on Hitler that he was lugging around everywhere. I remember thinking then that there was something special about this kid.”

HIS LOYALTY IS BECOMING THE STUFF OF LEGEND

Willemse’s loyalty to Western Province and the Stormers is fast becoming the stuff of legend, but Samuels, who himself got his first senior contract at the Golden Lions, says the drive growing up wasn’t a fierce passion for the Streeptruie.

“The first time I went to Newlands was when I played there for the first time,” he says.

“Our rugby passion wasn’t about supporting WP, we were very strongly affiliated to the Strand club, which is my dad’s club. I will be taking over as director of rugby there next season. The links with the club are strong.”

Instead, Samuels believes Willemse’s sense of loyalty comes from the way he was treated by various people within the WP system during his development as a player.

“Dobbo stuck with him through the bad times, and Robbie Fleck (Dobson’s predecessor at the Stormers and WP) also played a very influential role in Damian’s development. When he stepped out of the classroom Fleckie was there to take him to training. Robbie saw the potential in Damian and did a lot to help facilitate his development as a player.

“Some of the senior players at the Stormers, such as Siya (Kolisi) and Rhynhardt Elstadt also helped him a lot and taught him the ropes. With Damian it has to feel right, it has to feel like the right decision to move, it can’t just be about the money, if the move isn’t right for him he won’t move.”

Willemse nearly moved a while back. The Vodacom Bulls’ director of rugby, Jake White, was keen to use Willemse’s close relationship with one of the Bulls equity partners, Johan Rupert, to his advantage by luring the former South African Schools flyhalf to Pretoria. And it was in the aftermath of those dealings, and Willemse’s decision to stay, that the player’s reputation for loyalty and sense of fair play really started to gain momentum in Cape rugby circles.

The meeting between Willemse, White, Willemse’s agent and a representative of Rupert was effectively just about over, or so the story goes, and it was a done deal. Willemse had set himself on going to the Bulls, who had offered around R1.5-million more than WP had when everything, including the SARU Poni (Player of national importance), were stacked up together.

But, or so legend has it, nothing had been signed yet, so when White started rubbishing WP and made statements about how the union would really be in trouble now that they’d lost Willemse, the player still had space to change his mind. And that was when his sense of loyalty clicked in and he himself ended the meeting by saying he was staying put in the Cape.

IT ALL CLICKED INTO PLACE WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL SHIFT

It has worked out for Willemse, with the first Vodacom United Rugby Championship season providing a breakthrough moment for him, that being the view of both Samuels and the Stormers’ attack and backline coach Dawie Snyman, who is a brilliant and highly rated coach himself and together with head coach Dobson has played a significant part in the Stormers’ success.

“I was coaching at Paul Roos, it was my last year there, when I first came across Damian,” recalls Snyman.

“Damian was in Grade 8 at the time, and one of the coaches told me that there was this really special player playing with the under-14 team. I had a look at him. He had at that point an extraordinary ability to control a game, and he was quite physical for a flyhalf. He was a very tough kid who could run from anywhere and beat his opponents.

“I think though at some stages Damian tried too hard, he put too much pressure on himself. Something happened recently, I think it was at the start of the URC season, where he started to become more comfortable with making mistakes and not always getting it spot on. There was definitely a defining moment, but I am not quite sure the exact moment it happened. He became quite different, much more confident and more relaxed about trying things.”

Samuels concurs with Snyman’s view, and reckons the high expectations placed on his younger brother from outsiders, meaning fans and media, might have infiltrated his brain at some point and impacted on his approach.

“With Damian a lot of people have this expectation that he is a kind of superhero who can’t put a foot wrong and when he does put a foot wrong the media and the fans have a go at him,” said the former Stormers hooker.

“He is the kind of guy who has always looked at himself first and he is very hard on himself. But the one thing that he knows now is that he is a human being first, before he is a rugby player. When that started clicking for him, when he recognised that fact, that is when it started clicking for him.

“He has always been a true professional and always there for the team and willing to put the team first. That put pressure on him, but at some point, the penny dropped, and he started to recognise that even someone like Richie McCaw, and the other great players, makes mistakes. He wants to play at a high level, but even there, the best of the best make mistakes.

“There was that bad run of games he had that put a lot of pressure on him. He tried to get out of it by trying too hard, and it just became a vicious circle for him. When he tried too hard, that was when he wasn’t performing well. But at around the start of the last URC season he had a breakthrough moment. He realised that he was human and that making mistakes came with the territory as a top rugby player.”

HAS HAD TIME IN THE SADDLE NOW

Snyman reckons that playing several positions have also helped Willemse get to a point where his temperament is now ready for whatever challenge is thrown at him.

“He’s had time in the saddle now, he’s still young but has played a lot of senior rugby and is maybe understanding his own game better than when he started,” said Snyman.

“He’s always had an incredible skill set and ability to create something, and because of that he tried a lot himself. Now he knows how to make better use of the players around him and to make the most of the team’s systems. He has a better instinct now of when to go himself and when to play those around him.

“Maybe it was because of his changes of position that he has got this right. As a fullback he has more space and time, and can suss out what options the flyhalf is presented with and how everything evolves around him, while at centre he has an understanding of what the flyhalf needs. I think that understanding is the important point when it comes to where Damian has evolved to.”

QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER 10 IS HIS BEST POSITION

Willemse is now back playing in the flyhalf position (where he played his entire school career) in Dublin on Saturday, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has completely completed the apprenticeship that former Stormers skills coach Paul Feeney, a New Zealander who had coached some top Kiwis at the Blues, felt was necessary before there could be certainty that flyhalf was the position for him.

“Damian is a super talent, he’s one of the most talented players I have ever coached and talent wise he has everything, but No 10 is a special position – will he be a Beauden Barrett, a Jonny Wilkinson or a Johnny Sexton?" asked Feeney in an interview done in 2018, when Willemse was in his second year as a senior player.

"The No 10 isn’t there for flair, he’s there to push the team around the park and be smart. But he has the bonus of having more flair than anyone else. So, if he can have the same brain as a Sexton, a Wilkinson, a Dan Carter or an Andrew Mehrtens, then he will kill it. We will only know that in time. He is still young. He needs to develop. That is why I am careful of opening the lid too much, of expecting too much.

“As a No 10 you have to be the brains of your team. It’s all about the computer you have in your head. You have to push your team around the park and know when to kick, when to pass, when to run, and that only comes with time. You will see once Damian gets to 30 or 40 games whether he has the capabilities to be a great flyhalf.”

Snyman believes that Willemse has now done that apprenticeship and reckons that he has grown to the point where he can do a job at flyhalf, be it at franchise level or at international level.

“He has matured a lot, and he is almost the guy that drives the team, who sets the standards, both at game time and on the pitch training, and off the field. He doesn’t leave anything to chance and it is quite impressive to see him operate, he does a lot of work and comes up with nice ideas,” says Snyman.

“He has matured into being comfortable with his status as a senior player and that makes it easier for him to be a game driver as the flyhalf.”

NEEDS TO BE MORE AMBIDEXTROUS

However, Snyman also believes that Willemse’s chances of being successful at flyhalf depend on who he is in combination with.

“If you have him at flyhalf, who you select around him is important,” he says. “If you want him at flyhalf, you need a centre who can relieve the pressure when it comes to kicking, the kind of player who the New Zealanders had in mind when they called the inside centre the second five-eight. With Damian, combinations will be important if you have him at flyhalf.”

Why that is so was touched on by Snyman’s uncle, also Dawie, who played fullback for the Springboks in the 1970s, as well as flyhalf for WP, and who coached Province to their record-breaking golden era of five successive Currie Cup triumphs between 1982 and 1986.

“I coached Damian for a bit when I helped out at Paul Roos in Damian’s matric year, which also happened to be the school’s 150th anniversary year,” recalls Snyman senior.

“You could see then that he had lots of talent, lots and lots of it, but that doesn’t mean that everything is automatically in place. That talent must be developed and coached. He is a very good attacking and defence option, but I don’t think his kicking ability is where it should be now considering where he was when he was at school. There hasn’t been a big improvement.

“The main problem for me is that he has not developed his left foot as a tactical kicking option. That is what makes Manie Libbok a better option at 10 for the Stormers. It means that the teams that he plays for become predictable when the ball is going to the one side, and it makes it easier to box him in, which obviously isn’t good for a flyhalf.

“Particularly if you look at who the Boks are playing against on Saturday, and the level he is being expected to perform at, it surely does limit you as a team if a player is not completely comfortable on both sides as it means the opposition can close you up on one side.”

WHY HE’S AN UNLIKELY FLYHALF FOR THE STORMERS

Although he disagrees that Willemse hasn’t developed his kicking, Dawie junior does agree to an extent with his uncle’s sentiments, and in that agreement is the reason why Willemse may play 10 for the Boks but is unlikely to do so unless in an emergency for the Stormers.

“It is a fair point if you really want to be a top flyhalf, and one of Manie’s strengths is his ability with both feet, so he only very occasionally gets boxed in,” says Dawie junior.

“But then the game has also changed a bit. At the Boks, Willie (le Roux) helps out Damian quite a bit, he comes into first receiver in certain plays and is also very good with his left foot. In fact, that left foot is one of the reasons Willie has had such a great and long career with the Boks. It enables him to play in combination with various flyhalves. And on Saturday in Dublin, Cheslin [Kolbe] is there to do that job.

“I think Damian has improved as a kicker in time, he has grown his ability to get distance and his out-of-hand kicking has improved. Even under pressure it has improved a lot. He can work on his goalkicking and his ability to kick off the left. He is still young, so I think he can still develop in those areas.”

MIGHT BE EASIER IF THERE’S ANOTHER GOALKICKER

There was a theory that when Willemse was tried at flyhalf early in his career with WP and the Stormers, his performances were impacted by whether he was expected to be the frontline goalkicker, something that is of course relevant if you are assessing his chances of doing well as a flyhalf for the Boks.

When Willemse had SP Marais, who was a reliable place-kicker, in the team at fullback or wing, he tended to flourish, whereas he struggled when he had to place a lot more focus on training his goalkicking.

“Any flyhalf if he doesn’t have a good day with the boot will judge himself and then put pressure on himself to make up for it in other areas, and that was may be the case with Damian early in his career,” says Snyman junior.

“However, I have also seen Damian perform well when he has not done well with the boot. If you are not so great with your initial kicks, you just have to make the adjustment and ensure there is still rhythm to your general play, and then try and work through the place-kicking issue when the next opportunity comes.”

Willemse has a freaky skill set, and he has matured temperamentally and works incredibly hard at his game, so Snyman junior is certainly not writing off the possibility that Willemse still might become the next big thing at flyhalf that he was touted to be when excelling for WP Schools at the 2016 Craven Week at Kearsney College.

“That will all be tested now, his kicking out of hand, his place-kicking under pressure, and all of that, and I must say that so far, he has passed that with flying colours. He was very good at flyhalf when he was switched there at a stage of the series against Wales,” concluded the Stormers assistant coach.