Damian de Allende is, like Willemse, a double Rugby World Cup winner with South Africa
Damian de Allende is, like Willemse, a double Rugby World Cup winner with South Africa
The Springboks’ Damian Willemse missed out on the player of the match award for his stellar performance in Saturday’s win over England – after the local South African broadcaster mistakenly handed it to his team-mate Damian de Allende instead.
On his 50th Test appearance, Willemse was superb at full-back, excelling in the air, kicking a brilliant 50:22, making more metres than any other home player and knitting together the world champions’ attack.
While the Supersport television commentary team picked Willemse as their player of the match, the message was not communicated properly to pitch-side producers at Ellis Park, with De Allende posing for the presentation and carrying out the obligatory accompanying post-match interviews.
The error did not seem to dampen South Africa’s celebrations, with De Allende and Willemse posing together to mark the latter’s half century of appearances.
South Africa take on Scotland on Saturday in Pretoria with Willemse having taken the rested De Allende’s place at inside centre.
BBC Sport contacted Supersport for comment.
De Allende and Willemse mark the latter’s 50th appearance for South Africa
De Allende and Willemse mark the latter’s 50th appearance for South Africa
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