De Villiers had flashbacks after Willis ‘croc roll’
Former South Africa captain suffered similar injury in 2014 No simple way’ of protecting jackalling player at breakdown
Former South Africa captain Jean de Villiers says that he had “flashbacks” when he watched England flanker Jack Willis suffer his devastating knee injury against Italy.
There are certain memories that everyone likes to keep behind a locked door. For De Villiers, that applies to the dislocated kneecap he suffered against Wales in November 2014. It remains one of the most gruesome acts of misfortune to have occurred in an international match. Witnesses recall his scream piercing through the noise of nearly 60,000 people at the Principality Stadium.
Understandably, De Villiers says he does not like to think about it. Unfortunately, watching the Six Nations on Saturday, De Villiers was presented with no choice when he saw Willis suffer an injury in almost identical circumstances as he was “crocodile rolled” out of a ruck.
“When I saw the injury occur, I certainly had flashbacks because there were so many similarities in the way that it happened and the pain that immediately occurs,” De Villiers said. “I just feel so bad for him because I know what he is going through and how long the road to recovery is. My thoughts are with him right now.”
Like Willis, De Villiers was jackalling for the ball when one player twisted him one way while the weight of other players collapsed on his prone leg. The injury may not have happened without the initial twist, but De Villiers ascribes it far more to bad luck than any recklessness by the Wales players.
“If I remember it correctly, I was cleaned out by Taulupe Faletau from my left-hand side and, as he cleared me quite low, it straightened my left leg,” De Villiers said. “Then, the weight came more side on and another two guys were cleaning from the right-hand side. The two forces from both sides, I just could not take the weight and everything collapsed. Sometimes in rugby it is just the force, plus the angle, plus bad luck and you find yourself in a bad position.”
The damage was as bad as it comes. “I did my ACL, PCL, MCL, dislocated my patella, tore VMO muscle off and a hamstring,” De Villiers said, before jokingly adding, “the rest of the knee was fine”.
At one stage, De Villiers feared he would not walk again. As a result of previous knee operations, he required artificial knee ligaments to be inserted. “I had run out of body parts,” he said. After six knee operations, he did make a return, which was nothing short of a miracle, playing a handful of matches before suffering a dislocated jaw at the 2015 World Cup.
The scars remain. A video of De Villiers jiggling his kneecap around in its socket did the rounds on social media in 2019. “My party piece,” he said. “I won’t say I suffer on a daily basis, but I am restricted because of it. I can’t play a game of touch rugby with the kids, for example.”
At least Willis escaped tearing his ACL, even if his Wasps head coach Lee Blackett confirmed that he did “everything but that”.
The reigning Premiership player of the season said in a tweet yesterday: “I will give everything I can to my rehab to come back a better and
‘I did my ACL, PCL, MCL, dislocated patella, tore TMO muscle off ... but the rest of my knee was fine’
stronger player. I have loved every second of training and playing in an England shirt and it has been a dream come true to be involved in such a great group of lads and coaches. I’m truly gutted with the way it ended on Saturday, but these things happen. I will be back.”
De Villiers’s main advice for Willis, who previously spent the best part of a year on the sidelines, is to maintain a positive attitude and trust in the team around him. On the issue of the legality of “croc rolls”, De Villiers is phlegmatic. While he supports protecting players, there is no straightforward solution to policing the breakdown.
“In terms of clearing out and protecting the jackal, the head area is a no-go and rightly so,” De Villiers said. “Your target area has become so small, in terms of clearing out a player, that it is so easy to get it wrong, whether it is a head contact or a crocodile roll.
“We want to protect players, but how do you do that and not jeopardise quality of product? I don’t have an answer. It is so difficult because there are so many variables. The player jackalling moves a couple of centimetres, gets it wrong and it can be a big injury. The decisions that the governing body has to make on and off field are very, very difficult.”