Springbok utility back Damian Willemse stressed the importance of remaining grounded and improving a few key areas of their game as they look ahead to their opening Rugby World Cup match against Scotland in Marseille on Sunday, 10 September.
“It was a great game and a special occasion,” said Willemse, who was named the player of the match. “It was a good team win for us and we are over the moon. We can take a lot of confidence from this into the World Cup, which is only a few days away.
“We are very happy with the way we played. But that said there are a few things we have to work on, and we’ll get back to the drawing board on Monday and work on that.
Willemse attributed his Player of the Match award to teamwork: “I must give credit to the forwards. They gave us a great platform to attack from and that’s where it all started.
“Personally I’d just like to continue working on my fundamentals. It was great to get some minutes under the belt, and I plan to go back on Monday and see if I can improve on my game.”
“We are facing Scotland in our first game, and they are a quality outfit.”
Willemse thanked the sea of South African fans that made their way to a packed Twickenham stadium and said: “As South Africans we are lucky to have a lot of support in London and we’d like to thank them for coming out and cheering us on, we certainly felt it out there.”
