Eddie: Willemse is an athletic beast

by | Sep 19, 2025 | African Golf News

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Eddie Jones has compared Springbok utility back Damian Willemse to “a rugby league front-rower”.

The Boks bounced back from a 24-17 defeat at Eden Park with a 43-10 demolition of New Zealand last Saturday, scoring six tries to one after Rassie Erasmus backed a new-look backline boasting just 173 combined Test caps.

Speaking on the Rugby Unity podcast, Jones said Erasmus created the perfect balance between structure and freedom to get the best out of his players.

“At the start of the week, he went early, and I reckon he said to those young blokes, ‘You got carte blanche to attack, but you don’t attack from our half, you kick everything from our half and then as soon as you get the ball in their half, you can go for your life’ – and that’s basically what they did,” said the former England and Wallabies coach.

“It seemed to really free them up because that [Damian] Willemse is an athletic beast, but we haven’t seen him actually ever play like that to that extent, where he’s running over the top of people.”

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Willemse earned his first start at inside centre but shifted to fullback after Aphelele Fassi’s early injury, producing a dominant performance capped by a powerful try.

“That try he scored close to the line where he ran the winger and centre – he just burst through them like a rugby league front-rower. You don’t see that too often. That was incredible,” Jones said.

Jones believes Rassie Erasmus struck the right tactical balance, giving his young backs licence to attack once the Boks were playing in New Zealand’s half.

“I think they were unleashed – he backed them early in the week, telling them, ‘You are playing, but you’ve got to make sure you kick out of our half’. They kicked well, won the contest, and then from fractured ball in the opposition’s half, they were able to attack with a fair bit of freedom,” he explained.

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“They used the kicks behind in the wide rucks well. The other thing they probably spoke about is they didn’t want rucks inside the 15-metre line – they’d rather put the ball behind, make New Zealand play out of there, attack that wide breakdown and keep it in their half, so they kick back to their advantage.”

Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

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