{"id":242114,"date":"2025-10-26T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/242114\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T13:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:47:07","slug":"springbok-stars-november-tour-at-risk-confirms-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/242114\/","title":{"rendered":"Springbok star’s November tour ‘at risk’ confirms club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus<\/a> faces an anxious wait over the fitness of Damian Willemse<\/a>, after the Stormers<\/a> star suffered a hamstring injury during Saturday\u2019s 31\u201316 win over Benetton<\/a> in Treviso.<\/p>\n

Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson confirmed post-match that Willemse had picked up the injury but chose to remain on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cDamian has probably got a pulled hamstring,\u201d Dobson said. \u201cHe got moved to the wing, which I thought was very clever from Ruhan [Nel], so that he didn\u2019t have to defend too much. It just sums up the character.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has probably put some of his tour at risk. He didn\u2019t want to come off and kept playing for the Stormers, which was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willemse\u2019s setback comes less than a week before South Africa\u2019s five-match tour begins, starting with their clash against Japan<\/a> in Tokyo on November 1. The 26-year-old has been a mainstay in Erasmus\u2019s squad, capable of covering fullback, fly-half and centre.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dobson was full of praise for his side after completing their European tour unbeaten, following wins over the Ospreys, Glasgow<\/a> Warriors and Benetton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very special win for us. We never won here [in Treviso] and it was a very tough game,\u201d he said. \u201cThey rolled out their internationally laden team. It was incredibly tough in the first half. It was different tactics from what we\u2019ve faced in the first four rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stormers boss highlighted the contributions of his bench as key to the clean sweep.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go on a tour unbeaten for a team that travels badly is a very special achievement by a special group,\u201d Dobson added. \u201cThe impact from the bench was amazing. Zach [Porthen], Adre [Smith], Ruben [van Heerden] and Ruan [Ackermann] \u2013 that has been the secret in all the games. Whoever has been on the bench, there are big forwards coming on that have made a big difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cCobus Reinach is obviously a special player. I was thrilled with Jurie Matthee<\/a> as the game driver. We were thinking about life without Manie [Libbok] and Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu], and then we\u2019ve got a very competent and talented young player who can drive a team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus faces an anxious wait over the fitness of Damian Willemse, after the Stormers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-242114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}