'In the moment, I didn't even know the hit was illegal... the physio and medic said just to stay down'
Twenty-year-old Andre Esterhuizen sat in Jake White’s office as the world champion coach peered over his spectacles and delivered a stern ultimatum.
At nearly 6ft 5ins and 115KG, Esterhuizen was already a midfield juggernaut. Andre the Giant, as he would soon be christened. Yet even in South Africa, where brawn reigns, even under White, famed for the brutality of his rugby, it was not merely enough to be a broadsword in the Sharks backline.
White didn’t rate him as a footballer. His handling wasn’t crisp enough; his understanding of space too poor. The options were stark: join the back-row, or leave the franchise.
“Moving to flanker was Jake White’s great idea… yeah, obviously I’m not a massive fan,” Esterhuizen tells RugbyPass. “He actually gave me my first shot against Saracens here in London. But as we went on, he called me in and said he didn’t think I would make it as a back, I must try playing flanker or he didn’t see a future for me at the Sharks.
“I wasn’t very keen on it but I gave it a shot to see if it would help. I played a few games at flanker and it just wasn’t for me. Two or three weeks later, they announced that Jake was leaving, and the week after, I played senior Currie Cup at centre. From there, it started off.”
A small-town boy from the North West Province, Esterhuizen never had the glitz and resource of the heavyweight schools. It took serious minerals to challenge a figure as wizened, opinionated and successful as White, but the exchange lit a fire inside him that still burns fiercely. Perhaps, on the coach’s part, it was a shrewd psychological ploy.
“It is tough for any young guy going up against someone like that, he has got all the experience in the world,” Esterhuizen says. “But it just shows you as well, they don’t always know everything.
“You are going to have doubts in yourself – is he right? Is he right? Am I doing the right thing here or not? After that, it’s just about working for what you want. It was a massive drive to prove him wrong, but also to prove to myself that I could do it.
“Where I played, you don’t get the coaching exposure that you would at bigger schools. The guy who teaches you math coaches your rugby team. Coming into a structure, you only know one thing – take the ball, carry hard and tackle hard. My distribution wasn’t bad but it wasn’t on par with what was needed in professional rugby.
“For the first two years I stuck to my style, just to get through the ranks, and then I got more coaching, Sean Everitt at the Sharks worked with me on those skills.”
Gradually, he added guile to his muscle. Esterhuizen became so much more than a bludgeon. He learned how to play-make and round his game, welding craft to ballast.
A season in Japan with Sannix Blues opened Esterhuizen’s eyes to a whole new rugby world, a league where he could cast off the shackles, take risks and make mistakes. He transformed himself and Springbok honours followed.
“We had coaches like Carlos Spencer in Japan, and the way they play is a lot of running rugby, very skilful rugby – that just changed my whole game,” he says. “I came back to the Sharks feeling like a different player.
“You can play in Japan without any fear or any pressure. If you want to off-load out the back, throw it through your legs, you can literally do what you want and they won’t say anything if it doesn’t come off. You had a lot of freedom to do what you wanted. Whereas in Super Rugby, you are not going to try all this stuff and you will never know if it will work in a game. The more you do it, the more comfortable you will be.”
Of course, his Test career will forever be linked to Owen Farrell’s shoulder. With the clock red, South Africa trailed by a point at Twickenham two years ago, when Esterhuizen charged at the England captain. He was met by a meaty set of deltoids and a distinct lack of arm-wrappage.
The two collided like rutting stags; a great, percussive hit. Angus Gardner reviewed the tackle, and decreed it legal. The referee later admitted that he should have awarded a penalty which would have given the Boks a chance to snatch the game.
In the days that followed, Rassie Erasmus, ever the mischief-maker, was very deliberately filmed overseeing a slapstick training drill where he encouraged Esterhuizen to torpedo a tackle bag without using his arms.
“In the moment, I didn’t even know the hit was illegal,” the centre says. “It happened so quickly. I wanted to get up, but the physio and medic said just to stay down, we are waiting for a decision, to milk it a bit as well. I just waited on my knees and yeah, nothing happened!
“Ach, it was bad to lose like that, but it’s rugby. I’ve made stupid tackles and stupid mistakes in my life as well and received red cards. It’s just in the heat of the moment.
“The tackle bag was supposed to be a bit of fun but Rassie knew the cameras were going to be on it. It was just a bit of joking around to lighten the mood.”
Esterhuizen’s own mood fell into shadow last year. The World Cup – in Japan, of all places, where he came of age as a player – was a wounding experience. He was right on the very cusp of selection but missed the cut for the final squad.
He felt crushing anguish that only worsened when Jesse Kriel was injured in the pool stage and South Africa sent for fly-half-cum-full-back Damian Willemse rather than a like-for-like midfield replacement. But he felt too the searing joy that engulfed the nation as the Boks thundered to victory.
“If I’d been out of it for the whole season, it would have been easier,” he says. “But I was in the squad the whole season and part of the final 34, but only 31 got to go. It’s such a great achievement, but it was tough not to be a part of it.
“I got over it pretty quickly, but it was quite a bummer when Jesse got injured and I didn’t get called up. I don’t want to go into depth about it, because the guy that got called up had been injured and didn’t play any rugby, he wasn’t part of those structures the whole year.
“If it was another centre, I would have been fine with it, but it was quite tough when they did something like that. But it’s rugby, it’s part of life, eh? If you don’t move on, and you hold on to that the whole time… I’ve got a lot of other things to be grateful for.”
After eight years as a Shark, Esterhuizen felt his sizeable head had struck a ceiling. Paul Gustard, the Harlequins coach, met him for coffee while in London with the Barbarians and the two clicked, their values and visions aligning. It helped too that Esterhuizen’s best mate from home, Stephan Lewies, was at The Stoop already. Lewies has just been anointed captain for the new season.
Esterhuizen is, in every sense, a gargantuan signing for Quins. Stick him outside the snake-charming little wizard that is Marcus Smith and the line breaks will flow and opportunities cascade. He is deeply driven, not just to succeed in England, but to assuage his ache to wear the green and gold once more, and to face the British and Irish Lions next year.
For too long, though, his storied club team have tracked a maddening path. Quins have the brilliance to carve you asunder, and the propensity to point the gun at their foot and empty the barrel. Their last play-off appearance came in 2014; their most recent title two years earlier.
“There has been a lot of inconsistency,” Esterhuizen says. “This team, on paper, can beat any team on any given day, it is just how and when we pitch up. Consistency is key. We are a young squad, still building, and we need that consistency and drive behind all the players.
“Everyone is chasing something, to be part of something special, but going through the steps each week and not just looking at the end picture, getting better every game as a team, and we will reach what we set out to achieve.”
Comments on RugbyPass
> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
2 Go to commentswhat’s happening to Ian Peel?
1 Go to commentsAs a Crusaders fan , so disappointed , again.But I think Fergus Burke was all class for the Crusaders in his first game since October last year. Fletcher Newell , was so good at prop. Johnny McNicoll has been gold since returning from Wales. Noah Hotham brilliant , in a coming of age second season for the Crusaders.Jone Rova did really well at centre. The end of the game was tough.Sevu Reece , what a game/season in tough times.
1 Go to commentsFellas a balloon
3 Go to commentsBlues B team on display and made no race of it. By far the best team in SR with the Hurricanes barely getting past the winning post. Up the Blues 💙
6 Go to commentsWould be amazing to have Servette Genève reaching this level
3 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can't buy a win this season. Surely Penney's contract won't be renewed. There's still enough talent in the squad that they oughta be winning more.
1 Go to commentsABs captain for 23 seasons. Decent record. Surely nobody will surpass it. Legend. But alas a typo…
2 Go to commentsJust FYI Rugbypass, I for one am tired of your clickbait titles and thumbnails and will be clicking them no longer. Good day.
1 Go to commentsI think Farrell despite all of the stick he gets in the media is still one of if not the best fly half in the world. He is literally the full package. He can kick one of the best in the world, probably has the best defensive game of a fly half in the world and if he wants to he can run, take contact and find an offload to keep the pace of the attack. I dont know why he isnt spoken more about still being one of the best in the world with the likes of dupont. Farrell is the ultimate captain and team leader and is experienced- he has been in nearly any situation you can think of. I still believe due to these reasons that he is England’s best ever player and is still one of the best players in the world.
48 Go to commentsBlues are dominating up front and that’s been a long time coming. They have won the up front confrontation which is where canes, hilanders and act brumbies are also strong.
6 Go to commentsJust watched brumbies v safas game sadly not a show in he’ll thryr anywhere near quarters or semi contention. Admittedly some issues around new comers bot what stands out for me is coaching management, poor game planning and accuracy.
5 Go to commentsOne tough SOB!
16 Go to commentsI’ve put on 4/5 kilos since the beginning of the season too. Not good kilos. Bad kilos.
6 Go to commentsSurely there’s a ‘no knobheads’ policy ?
3 Go to commentsWallaroos have no chance of beating the Black Ferns unless Canada upsets them in Christchurch tomorrow but I doubt that as well!
1 Go to commentsWhat a joke. Could the victim do a course to reverse the long term CTE damage from the cheapshot?
2 Go to commentsTruely great player. In social media and opinion pieces he was held up and flogged for the results. People wanted someone to crucify, and he was the captain. He was still an immense presence respected by his peers. His battles with Siya Kolisi belong up with with Collins vs Burger in my opinion. Unlucky to be carded in the final, but I don’t agree that his red card was the defining moment. Not when you look at the dominant performances of the Springboks (PSDT in particular.) I think Cane should be remembered for the spirit and physicality that is special to test rugby.
16 Go to commentsSam was the man until he got injured .
16 Go to comments_Crusaders versus Leinster _at the moment might be a rout! But I would like to see the Blues play Toulouse, the Hurricanes front up against Stade Francais, and the Chiefs go against Toulon.
157 Go to comments