It is hard to imagine Damian Willemse being criticised, but there was a time not long ago when the criticism was raining down on him from all angles.
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He said this week as he approached his landmark 50th cap for the DHL Stormers, which will come on Sunday when he runs out with his teammates to face the Parma Zebre in a Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixture in Stellenbosch that the criticism motivated him. Which you’d expect to be the Willemse response - he is described in the Stormers camp as the very embodiment of professionalism, a player who just can’t stop working at improving himself.
You’d expect a player with that personality to internalise criticism as a positive, to use it as motivation, but it may be worthwhile to look at what he was criticised for in the first place. For it may provide the key to explaining why the critics have disappeared back into their hiding places.
When Willemse was fielding most of the brickbats that were thrown at him it was when he was playing flyhalf for the Stormers. Pivot was of course the position that he played when he first grabbed everyone’s attention wearing the No 10 of Western Province Schools at the 2016 Craven Week at Kearsney College.
But like his predecessor in the South African Schools No 10 jersey, Curwin Bosch, perhaps Willemse was pushed through into that role at senior level too quickly. Sharks coach Sean Everitt mentioned recently that perhaps the system failed Bosch in that instead of being given a chance to dominate at age-group level, he was playing flyhalf for the Sharks senior team a year after leaving school.
Willemse didn’t go straight from school to senior provincial rugby as a flyhalf in the way that Bosch did. His first games for WP and the Stormers were as a replacement fullback. But there was always an expectation that Willemse was the future flyhalf in the way that Handre Pollard was at the Bulls and almost inevitably, while still a very young age, he was thrust into that role.
Perhaps there’s another element to being a flyhalf, particularly in the South African context, that should not be overlooked - unless you have an ace goalkicker who plays another position like Percy Montgomery or Leigh Halfpenny in your team, it’s always the flyhalf that is entrusted with the place-kicking duties.
It wasn’t a question that was asked when the 23-year-old Willemse fronted a media online press conference this week, and maybe it should have been, but for a diligent, professional player like he is, there must have been an inordinate amount of time spent by him honing that skill. There are many who believe that Willemse isn’t a natural place-kicker, so it would have demanded even more extra work than it would say Bosch or Pollard.
MISSES MAY HAVE IMPACTED ON ALLROUND GAME
There is also a perception among some who are close to him that Willemse might have sometimes let his general play get impacted by his place-kicking failures, much like was the case with Ruan Pienaar when he was young. Back in his youth, the Sharks coaches always knew early in a game whether Pienaar was going to cook or not - if he slotted a difficult early kick, it was going to be his day, but if he missed one then a nervy allround performance would follow.
Whatever the case, Willemse has a general play skill set matched by very few, and it was his passing, offloading and running game, and his fielding of high balls, that were mentioned as his work-ons. Not place-kicking.
And towards the end of becoming just the complete article as a brilliant allround rugby player, Willemse says he is loving his role as a player who can move between fullback and inside centre, the two positions that he feels will be his specialist roles going forward both at the Stormers and the Springboks.
“There are a few aspects that I know I have to work on, and now in the URC I have been working on a lot of basic fundamentals, like running with the ball and passing the ball,” said Willemse.
“High balls were a concern in the beginning, so I have worked a lot on that, and continue to work on it. But that is why I am so positive about my utility role, it is giving me the ability to develop my skill set (in a way I wouldn’t if tied to one position).
“Particularly at No 12 the position requires something very different of you when compared to fullback. I am focusing on using my skill set to get the team in a different position, on getting rewards from my focus on small details, to put us in a position where we can get our good runners to play with the ball.”
SEES HIMSELF AS UTILITY BACK
Willemse says he sees himself as a utility back at both Springbok and Stormers level and doesn’t believe there is any negative in playing two positions.
“I am enjoying the role the bosses have given me. I learned a lot from the end of year tour, even though injury confined me to the sidelines on match days. I am enjoying the role and it is not a negative but a positive. I am developing and improving my game and playing two positions helps that. I am seeing it from that viewpoint, of getting better and improving my skills in each position.”
Willemse started the derby phase of the URC playing fullback for the Stormers but was outstanding at inside centre against the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg and even better in the following match against Connacht in Galway, where he had to switch from fullback to centre at the 11th hour because of an injury to Dan du Plessis.
According to Stormers coach John Dobson though, had all his players been fit for that game, the conditions in Galway might have seen him play on the wing.
“What we lose with Gazza playing in the centre is his brilliance at covering the back field,” says Dobson.
“Had Warrick (Geland) and Dan both been fit for the Galway game, we might have chosen Damian on the wing, not because we feel he is a wing, but because the conditions would have made it useful to have Damian joining Warrick in covering the back field. He is just such a good rugby player that he can be used almost anywhere and he is also one of those players who doesn’t mind because he will do whatever you demand of him for the benefit of the team. He is the consummate professional rugby player.”
SOME WORLDS CONQUERED BUT MORE TO CONQUER
Indeed, and at the age of 23 he has been a member of a Springbok World Cup winning squad and is also now about to play his 50th game for the Stormers. That is apart from his games for Western Province, with whom he had his first taste of a senior trophy.
“Sunday is a big occasion for me as every player strives for that 50-game mark. I have had lots of good memories and it started with that Currie Cup trophy we won in 2017 under Dobbo’s coaching,” said Willemse in reference to WP’s win over the Sharks in that domestic decider at Kings Park.
Dobson chose Willemse at fullback at that time, and then shifted him to inside centre for the following year’s final against the Sharks, this time at Newlands and this time a game that WP lost. He’d played flyhalf the week before in the semifinal against the Vodacom Bulls, so perhaps there was a bit too much musical chairs with Willemse back then. He can still play flyhalf if needed, but he sees himself as a No 12 or a No 15.
For his part, Dobson believes that Willemse’s professionalism and willingness to learn and improve has enabled him to travel a long way since those days, and he has further to travel yet.
“What Gazza showed us in 2017 and 2018 was his amazing offload and step, both of which he still has. But he is a champion of detail and now he is not just a stepper, he is pretty much everything,” said the Stormers coach.
“That is why we are so vociferous about him at this union. He is one of the team leaders already and his just 23. He is a very important player for us and will become even more so going forward.”