WILLEMSE WILL NOT FACE BOKS

FORMER Bulls lock Paul Willemse, who plays for French club Montpellier, will not get the chance to face the Springboks this year. He was in the running for a place in France’s 31-man squad for the November internationals.

France will play the Boks on November 10 and then later in successive weeks against Argentina and Fiji.

Willemse finds himself between a rock and a hard place. Though he has qualified to play for France having spent four years in the country, he is still waiting for a French passport. The reasons for this have been widely debated but the feeling is the delay may have been caused by the interference of French Rugby (FFR) president Bernard Laporte, who is opposed to the idea of foreigners playing for the national side.

Pretoria-born 25-year-old Willemse played provincial rugby for, amongst other teams, the Golden Lions and Bulls. – ANA