Springboks great: Willie Le Roux is still an ‘exceptional’ player but fans ‘latch onto that one thing’
Bulls star Willie Le Roux and an inset of ex-Springboks prop Steven Kitshoff
Steven Kitshoff has come out to bat for his former Springboks teammate Willie Le Roux, stating that fans don’t appreciate the things he does ‘exceptionally’ well.
Le Roux has been scrutinised in the aftermath of the Bulls‘ latest defeat to the Stormers, a result that extended their losing streak to six in a row.
The 36-year-old was yellow-carded during the United Rugby Championship fixture against the Stormers in Cape Town and gambled with a late cross-kick to Stravino Jacobs with time up on the clock.
It did not pay dividends and concluded the game with the hosts emerging 13-8 victors.
Willie is judged too harshly
His roll of the dice has been slammed by pundits and fans alike, but former Bok loosehead prop Kitshoff has defended the veteran full-back and says that he is still a brilliant player who wants to influence the game as much as possible.
The ex-front rower also highlighted the fact that the errors weren’t just limited to Le Roux, with several other Springboks players making errors due to the pressure of a hotly contested South African derby.
“Willie feels the pressure and makes an error, but Willie still does his primary job exceptionally well. He still commands the back field,” Kitshoff said on The GameTime podcast.
“He is telling guys where to go; his vision for the game is exceptional, but then people tend to judge him because he knocked the ball at the end of the game, or he made a mistake.
“His primary job is to catch the ball, but he does all the other things that no one sees like so well, and that’s why he’s a 100 cap Springbok because he does the s**t that we as fans aren’t watching.
“We don’t see him screaming and shouting at Elrigh Louw or Handre Pollard to make sure they are organised and are getting into the right places.
“The same for Gaza [Damian Willemse] on the other side, whether he is playing full-back, centre or fly-half, he is demanding space, and he’s creating moments for the team to do well.
“What a lot of people don’t recognise is that in rugby, like yes, you want that magic moment, that big play, that bump, that massive hit, turnover, line break, that’s what people want to watch because that’s the exciting bit, but there are a lot of things that happen before that moment.”
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Fans ‘don’t see that’
The topic of Le Roux being made a scapegoat by fans was raised again later in the podcast, and Kitshoff continued to defend the full-back. He stated that the Bulls veteran will do nine things well, but will make a mistake, and that error will be the focal point of the post-match discussion.
“He’s a good player, and he gets himself into a position where he wants to touch the ball, often. So, out of 10, he does nine things brilliantly, but then he makes one mistake, and fans latch onto that one thing,” he added.
“They don’t say ‘S**t, Willie actually put that guy away, he put that little cross kick away and closed down something there.’ They don’t see that.”
It’s not the first time that Le Roux has been the centre of attention, as he copped a lot of heat during the 2019 Rugby World Cup, when fans were calling for him to be dropped.
In the first Chasing the Sun docuseries, it was revealed that the full-back approached head coach Rassie Erasmus, offering to drop out of the starting lineup for the betterment of the team. That was rejected with a video circulating of the influence Le Roux had on the team, highlighting his importance.
Kitshoff referenced that clip as he went in to bat for his former teammate again.
“If we take it back a couple of years, Rassie always spoke about Willie’s abilities and attributes, and there was a video that came out showcasing how many good things he does in 80 minutes of rugby,” he said.
“The guy’s in the limelight like he wants to be as involved in the game as possible. So if he makes a mistake, he makes a mistake. You can’t fault the guy’s effort. Faulting a skill error is one thing, but you can never fault his effort.”
Bulls captain Ruan Nortje echoed Kitshoff’s sentiments when the topic of Le Roux’s gamble against the Stormers was raised in the build-up to the Pretoria-based club’s Investec Champions Cup clash with the Bristol Bears at Loftus this weekend.
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