Damian Willemse’s participation in the Springboks’ end-of-year tour is in doubt after he pulled up with an during the Stormers’ URC clash against the Glasgow Warriors in Stellenbosch on Saturday. 

The Springboks are facing an anxious wait on the status of Damian Willemse, who suffered a game-ending injury while on duty for the Stormers on Saturday.

The Springboks’ 34-man squad are scheduled to fly out of South Africa on Sunday for their three-Test tour of Europe, but Rassie Erasmus and his coaching staff are now facing a huge potential injury setback following Willemse’s injury-enforced withdrawal from a URC game a before the national squad’s depature.

Willemse, who was selected at inside centre for the Stormers’ crucial clash against the defending URC champions, started the game well and crossed for the first try of the game. But directly after dotting down, he pulled up with what appeared to be some discomfort in his groin area.

That was in the 33rd minute of play and the Springboks ace was immediately withdrawn from the field. And by the start of the second half, it was confirmed that Willemse will not be returning to the action with no further details given.

WATCH: SPRINGBOKS ACE PULLS UP WITH INJURY

The Springboks will face Scotland in Edinburgh (Sunday 10 November), England in London (Saturday 16 November) and Wales in Cardiff (Saturday 23 November) on their traditional end-of-year tour.

The squad – which will be led by Siya Kolisi, a key figure along with most of the squad members in the team’s triumphant Rugby Championship campaign – will depart for a training camp in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands between England and France, on Sunday 27 October. The group will then make the journey to Edinburgh on Sunday 3 November for their opening Test of the tour.

The Bok coach admitted that selecting the squad – consisting of 18 forwards and 16 backs – was challenging given the depth they had built up this year. A total of 49 players have taken the field for the Springboks in 2024 and 35 played in the Rugby Championship.

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‘I’m going to go with four wins’ – England great predicts Steve Borthwick’s side will beat the All Blacks AND Springboks

England great Will Greenwood has boldly predicted a clean sweep for Steve Borthwick’s men in their upcoming November campaign.

The Red Rose host all three southern hemisphere giants in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, while they also face Eddie Jones’ Japan outfit.

Borthwick’s side currently sit in fifth position in the World Rugby rankings, but they have big ambitions over the next couple of years.

After defeating Ireland and running France and the All Blacks close in 2024, the Englishmen will feel that they have the ability to go through November unbeaten.

‘I think they can beat them’

Greenwood, who was a key part of the 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning team, is certainly confident as he proclaimed: “I’m going to go with four [wins]. I think they can beat them.”

Although the performances have generally been positive, the results have not necessarily matched those displays.

The ex-England centre pointed to a 10-match stretch from the middle of the Six Nations to the end of the year which will ultimately define 2024 for Borthwick and his side.

Greenwood therefore believes that the Red Rose will need to win all four of their matches in November if they are to end in credit.

“From the first six, it went Scotland, Ireland, France, Japan, New Zealand, New Zealand, and we nicked Ireland and you’ve beaten Japan,” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.

“The other four, you’ve played really well in – maybe not so in the Scotland game but against France and New Zealand, you would say they were 60-minute performances.

“You’ve got to say in the Autumn Nations Series that three wins out of four is par, two is below par and four is, ‘actually, how good do you want to be perceived and believed?’ But that would still end up finishing the calendar year with a 60 per cent win ratio.

“The way that it’s happening is that there’s been so many positive performances, I think the public would go, ‘this England team’s great.’

“It feels like we’re on the edge of something really big and that’s why these autumn games are huge, not only for the public perception to be backed up but also for the players to start to think that every time they take to the field they’ll feel like they will win every game.”

Agonising defeats

A concerning trait for England has been their inability to see out tight games following narrow losses to France and the All Blacks (twice), something they need to rectify next month.

“They’re getting close to that but they need some big games. They blew France and they definitely blew one in New Zealand,” Greenwood added.

“I’m super positive considering they’ve only won two of their last six. If you’d said anytime in the last 10 years that we’ve won two of the last six, you would be going, ‘right, geez, we need to change’. The last thing we need now is change, I think that’s reflected in Steve’s squad.