After a convincing victory over the Barbarians in Cape Town, the Springboks have officially turned their focus to the first test match of the season, where they will take on Italy in Pretoria.
Recently, Springbok coach attended the press conference with a bit of contentment following his team’s 54 – 07 victory in a wet and cold Cape Town.
The game saw the double World Cup-winning coach give several young and inexperienced players a run at the DHL Stadium to test the team’s cohesion following the last few months’ alignment camp attendances. By the looks of it, they appear very much in sync and on par with the direction the coaching management would want to go.
With the Bok squad being this big, granting every player a bit of game time is key. Coach Rassie has made a few changes to the match day squad who will run out in Loftus this weekend, with some notable replacements including Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu making way for Handre Pollard, and Aphelele Fassi for Damian Willemse.
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Damian last played a Springbok game in the 2023 World Cup final, and since then has been troubled with injury, which saw him miss out on the international season in 2024.
Speaking on what it means to return to the squad and starting line-up, he said:
“I’m very happy to obviously be healthy and back in the Springbok team.”
“The last game I played was the Rugby World Cup final, so I’ll have to get in and do my primary job and hopefully the rest of the boys will take care of me … I know they’ll take care and look after me.”
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He was the first to admit that after being away from the squad for so long, his return comes with a bit of nerves and butterflies. Despite this, he is certain that all of that will disappear by the time he starts singing the national anthem.
Also see:Damian Willemse set to play 100th Stormers game: Here is a look at his career
