Damian Willemse has high hopes for promising young centre Markus Muller, who is expected to make his debut for the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship (URC) soon.<\/p>\n
The Stormers are hosting Glasgow Warriors in a top-of-the-table encounter in Cape Town on Saturday.<\/p>\n
With just three rounds of matches left in the URC<\/a>\u2018s regular season, the Warriors are currently occupying top position in the standings with 55 points amassed while the Stormers<\/a> are in joint-second spot with Leinster, four points adrift.<\/p>\n Much has been said and written about Muller<\/a>, who finished high school last year, and who caught the eye after delivering several dominant performances in schools rugby.<\/p>\n Invited to Springboks alignment camp<\/p>\n The 18-year-old has subsequently made the transition to senior rugby by joining the Stormers and hit the headlines when he was invited to a Springboks alignment camp earlier this year.<\/p>\n Star utility back Willemse<\/a> believes the promising youngster has the ability to go all the way to the top.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a fantastic player,\u201d he said. \u201cI rate him very highly and believe he\u2019s going to go far. Not just for the Stormers, but hopefully for the national team as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see more of him going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n After shining at schoolboy level and also doing well for South Africa\u2019s U20 national team, Muller\u2019s efforts at training for the Stormers have impressed Willemse.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you saw at Paarl Gimnasium at school level has been visible in our training sessions over the past few weeks,\u201d said the double Rugby World Cup winner.<\/p>\n \u201cHe will learn through experience. I\u2019ll help him where I can. All I\u2019ll say to him is to listen to the coaches and trust his natural instincts and abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Damian Willemse is \u2018wasted\u2019 on the wing as Schalk Burger issues Glasgow Warriors warning<\/a><\/p>\n Over the years, Willemse has shone at full-back, inside centre or fly-half for the Stormers and Springboks but he has been playing on the wing for his club in recent weeks.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old feels his latest positional switch has aided his personal development as a rugby player and helped the Stormers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a very good challenge. It\u2019s been a great addition to the team,\u201d he added. \u201cI felt it helped us a lot with our adaptability to our kicking and how we approach other teams\u2019 kicking games.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it\u2019s another skill set that I\u2019ve developed over the past few weeks with the coaches\u2019 help. It\u2019s been going well and I\u2019ve been enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n Willemse expects another tough challenge from the Warriors who have been victorious in the last five matches between these teams. Despite those losses, he expects this weekend\u2019s match to be a closely fought battle.<\/p>\n \u2018Both games were really tight\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cOur record (against them) doesn\u2019t show actually how tight those games were. I think both games (last season) were really tight up to the 70th, 75th minute,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n