Rassie Erasmus lifts lid on Andre Esterhuizen experiment and the role Felix Jones played
Andre Esterhuizen came on at flanker for the Springboks.
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has shed light on the decision to deploy Andre Esterhuizen as a replacement back-rower in their 54-7 victory over the Barbarians.
The centre emerged at DHL Stadium in Cape Town and packed down on the flank in a bold move from South Africa, but it has now been confirmed to be a long-term project.
Erasmus revealed the new hybrid role is similar to that of Kwagga Smith’s with the versatile back-rower also offering a backline option to the world champions in recent years.
Esterhuizen switch
The Springboks boss also revealed how assistant coach Felix Jones has been blooding Esterhuizen in the forwards during training sessions after what proved a successful outing.
“You can have two ways of looking at it,” said Erasmus. “You have can a forward covering a back position like Kwagga Smith covering wing, and you can have a back covering a forward position, like Andre covering flanker.
“You can call him a hybrid player – but he is a backline player who can also play in the forwards now. He has been training with both the forwards and the backs, and I must say Felix Jones handles his load very well in how much he does with the forwards and how much he does with the backs.
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“We started chatting to him about it five months ago, but he is a backline player who can also play forward.”
Esterhuizen came on in the 44th as the Springboks emptied their bench early in the second period, with the Sharks centre enjoying his hit-out on the side of the scrum.
“It was a good experience,” he said. “I obviously trained there this week and enjoyed it, and I believe it is a good attribute for the future.”
Commenting on how the move came about, Esterhuizen said: “Rassie obviously spoke to me about it, and we came to an agreement. I said I’d like to try it because it offers so much more options. I’ve been waiting for this conversation to come up for some time because it has been raised in the past.
“As one gets older you learn how you can slot into different positions, and it helps to get into the team more constantly. One needs to learn to adapt as a player, so I’m looking forward to how it can work out.”
Positive mindset
The former Harlequins favourite was also asked if he had any reservations about the bold move to the pack and insisted he would not have done it if he wasn’t willing.
“I’m definitely keen to learn and to slot into a bit of a hybrid role that can cover the forwards and backs,” he said.
“It will help me as a player personally and it will help the team as well, so hopefully we will see more of that in the future.”
