Damian Willemse hailed as an ‘absolute treasure’ after inspiring the Stormers’ first win over Munster
Stormers star Damian Willemse looks on.
Springboks superstar Damian Willemse produced a blockbuster performance at fly-half for the Stormers in their 34-19 bonus-point win over Munster in Cape Town.
The victory was the Capetonians’ first against the Irish province ever having failed to do so since the inception of the United Rugby Championship, a record which included a loss in the final two seasons ago at DHL Stadium.
The Stormers desperately needed a good result after yet another poor northern tour where they only managed one win from three, leaving them at the bottom of the table.
Man for the big moments
However, Willemse would not let his side remain there and took the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring 14 points on the day, including a cheeky drop goal in the second half at a critical moment in the game.
It certainly was the kind of shift that issued a strong reminder of his quality ahead of the Springboks’ northern tour in November.
Stormers director of rugby John Dobson was full of praise for his versatile star who is more than comfortable at 10, 12 or 15, labelling him as a team man and a “treasure”.
“He was really good, wasn’t he?” Dobson said. “We get crucified for playing Damian in different positions, but he is such a strong team man. He will never sit there and ask us to choose between him and Warrick Gelant at full-back. He is all about being wherever the team needs him.
“Last week, he made mistakes against Edinburgh, but they weren’t related to him playing at flyhalf. His last game at flyhalf was a Test match at Twickenham almost two years ago. Given that, you could almost expect a couple of mistakes when he was thrown in at 10 at a high-level competition in Edinburgh.
“Today, he was really, really good. He went down with a knock to his pec, but he said he wanted to keep playing. He is an extraordinarily committed guy and an absolute treasure.”
An important win for the former champions
Dobson admits he was relieved to get the result against Munster as he feared the Stormers would have had their backs to the wall if they lost, as it played out last season.
“The feeling is pure relief. This was a really tough week,” Dobson said. “For me, the record against Munster wasn’t a massive thing. If we had another loss, it could’ve done more damage.
Springboks star Damian Willemse inspires Stormers to streak ending victory over Munster
“Last year, we felt that pressure after the 0-4 tour. There was a knife to our throat for the whole season. If we had lost tonight, we really would’ve been on the dust road. We have another one to do next week, then I think we will be in a really good spot.
“I don’t think either team was brilliant. Munster are a really good team and a much tougher team than we sometimes realise. I don’t think we were compelling. There were some obvious things, we had the top lineout before tonight, but we lost five or six. We gave away too many penalties in the middle of the field to give Munster easy entries into our 22.
“Where I think we were absolutely magnificent was defensively. It’s a really good attacking team. They needed us to give away penalties to get any entries. So I thought this was a very good defensive effort. We were a team fighting for a win.”
