Ashwin out again

Ashwin out again

Springbok wing Ashwin Willemse is in another race against time to be fit to make Jake White’s World Cup squad for France. He looks unlikely to play any more rugby in 2006.

Arguably the unluckiest rugby player in the country, Willemse tore posterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee near the end of the defeat to the Sharks at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The result of a scan revealed the seriousness of the latest injury and Willemse will be out of action again for between six and 12 months.

It is likely he will have to undergo another operation to repair the damage. Willemse missed most of the 2005 season after having surgery on his ankle. He returned to the Cats squad earlier this year, but missed out on the overseas tour with a hamstring injury.

Saturday’s match was his first Super Rugby game in more than a year. The wisdom of leaving Willemse on the field for the full 80 minutes will surely be questioned. He sustained the injury in the 77th minute of a match that was already well and truly lost. And for those 77 minutes, the former SA rugby Player of the Year had looked a class above the rest on the field.

Willemse had played for the Young Lions in a Vodacom Cup match the previous weekend, but asking the player to last 80 minutes in his comeback match at Super 14 level was too much. He should have played no more than 50 or 60 minutes. Now his entire rugby career hangs in the balance again.

By Andrew Hollely


65 Comments

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  • 51.jomar1: Reply to this comment

    Thank God!!!! I hope he is not coming back

  • 52.Rommel: Reply to this comment

    Jeez Marauding give it a rest. Stop trying to give every single sentence another meaning.

    Look a *** in this way.
    If you need three quota players in your team and ashwin is there with thow other players of color then th equote is filled. correct, thus Ashwin is a Quota player. Most of these forced selections back fire, look at Eddie Andrews battle week after week, yet he stays there because of quotas.
    Not all quota are bad. Habana is an excellent player and i will choose him if he was green, pink, yellow whatever. But he does take the place of an Quota player in the team.

  • 53.Rommel: Reply to this comment

    “Look at it” seems better than “Look a ***” pardon

  • 54.Madie: Reply to this comment

    How can you say Ashwin was a quota…He was one of our outstanding players at the 2003 world cup and every time he played for the boks he shon. Could yoy think of a better winger than Ashwin at the time when he was playing?

  • 55.WhiteKnight: Reply to this comment

    Tackles:

    I’m afraid Marud3 has got you pegged. I am delighted to see that some one taken the time and late night effort to put you back in your pram. Jy is ‘n kakmaker en ‘n lafaard. Dwelling on this site 24/7 is a poor substitute for having friends or a life for that matter. You are a short sighted wanker and hope that the burn of the buttfuck that Marud3 has given you makes you think twice before stirring again (yeah right)

  • 56.Rommel: Reply to this comment

    Hey Madie
    If 54 is aimed at me please allow me to explain.
    Ashwin was a very good player and you are correct to say he shone for the boks most of the time. I would have picked a fit Ashwin for my team any day. Him and Habana on wings. Can you imagine. get the ball to the wings and you can turn back . Tri guaranteed.
    Officially they both are players of color, hence if i need to have three players of color in my team i only need to choose one more.

    That is the only reason why i call them quota players. Or would you prefer “bloodyGoodPlayersThatCanBeUsedAsQuota” players? Last one is probably more correct but one bloody long name.

    Lastly. If you looked at players that messed up their knees as Ashwin they don’t return. Speed is gone, Sidestep is something of the past. Chester was a damn good player until his knees packed up. bob skinstad was never the same after his knee bust up.

  • 57.MaraudingJ: Reply to this comment

    Rommel (re: post 52):

    Actually, we completely agree, if you read my posts.

    Tackler is the one who is claiming that quota cannot equal merit, and therefore Ashwin cannot be there on merit.

    I am telling him that this logic is flawed. Funnily enough, I gave exactly the same reasoning as you did. I quote myself here:

    “You see, [Tackler,] I explained to you months ago how it works. A player gets into the team by merit (best in his position). That player is non-white. That player fills a quota position. You see how simple it is for quota to equal merit?”

    The point is that Tackler FIRST claimed that quota is necessarily bad, and then he tried to backtrack and tell us that quota is simply quota (see post 35). But even when BACKTRACKING he had the gall to tell us that quota could never mean merit.

    The reason I don’t “give it a rest” is because Tackler is all air and no argument. He needs to be shown up for the weak troll he really is.

    That, and I’m swotting, so I’ve got plenty of time to kill. hahahaha

  • 58.TheTackler: Reply to this comment

    Nope. Got me wrong. I have never ever averred that a “quota” (nonwhite) player cannot be there on merit.

    What I have averred is that there is no way on earth that this quota player can even know absolutely 100% for sure whether he is in the team on merit or on quota.

    Of course, everyone will TELL him he’s there “on merit”. That’s just being nice and polite and politically-correct, of course.

    And the reason for this is that there IS a race quota.

    And as long as that race quota exists, for that long it will continue to be impossible for any nonwhite player to know absolutely 100% for certain that he is a merit player rather than a quota one.

    See?

    My solution is to do away with the race quota and to pick the entire team on merit and nothing but merit. And so what if it’s a 100% white team? Tough bikkies. And so what if it’s a 100% nonwhite team? Tough bikkies too.

    The melanin just doesn’t matter.

    Merit matters.

  • 59.MaraudingJ: Reply to this comment

    “…quota NEVER means merit.”

    – TheTackler, from post 43 on this thread

    From the horse’s mouth. Let it be known that Tackler is a liar AND a cheat.

  • 60.pompies: Reply to this comment

    Sorry have to agree with tt on this one.

  • 61.pompies: Reply to this comment

    But having said that me thinks that Mr.Marauding3 has put tt on his place. He he he

  • 62.MaraudingJ: Reply to this comment

    See, the funny thing is, I completely agree with this:

    “My solution is to do away with the race quota and to pick the entire team on merit and nothing but merit. And so what if it’s a 100% white team? Tough bikkies. And so what if it’s a 100% nonwhite team? Tough bikkies too.”

    But nothing Tackler says can be trusted, because he lies and wriggles his way around his own words. He blatantly contradicts himself at almost every step. And, if Tackler is to be believed, then non-white = quota, and quota cannot = merit, so therefore non-whites cannot get into a team on merit.

    So Tackler is not only a douchebag, but also a racist.

  • 63.TheTackler: Reply to this comment

    Nope. The problem is that as long as what race-quotas exist, NO player “of colour” can ever possibly know for absolute 100% sure that he has been picked on merit and not on quota.

    Of course, every player “of colour” would desperately like to believe he’s there on merit and not on quota. And nobody in the team camp will ever tell him he’s only a “quota” and not a “merit” because such a shattering revelation would undoubtedly cost the tactless revealer his six-figure income job.

    And so we all agree to play this cutesy-pie little smoke-and-mirrors game of let’s just pretend it’s all hunky-dory…

    That’s the cold hard truth of it, pilgrims!

  • 64.Rommel: Reply to this comment

    Tacklers comments (58) is very true (damn did i say that out loud?)

    Habana is good. no questions. Now he is on merit the whole says so. Habana has one bad game, which every player is allowed to have. If you’re white, hey sorry dude bad game. But if your a bit more sunburned voila, a quota player who doesn’t cut it.

    I would lioke to think that should quota be scrapped and players only get there on merit that we will have the three colored players there in any way. They feel better and no one can say anything.

  • 65.MaraudingJ: Reply to this comment

    But that’s just it. Tackler is the kind of guy who would say that Habana’s a quota player who doesn’t cut it when he does badly, just like he just called Ashwin Willemse a quota player who didn’t cut it. Both these men have been South African Players of the Year.

    He’s said it before, and he’ll say it again. Which is why Tackler is a liar and a racist.

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