CAPE TOWN – A lot of the fallout from the Springboks’ 47-point win over the Barbarians on Saturday was centered around midfielder, Andre Esterhuizen, who featured at flank after coming on as a second-half substitution.
Esterhuizen had this to say about his role: “It was a good experience. We obviously trained at it a bit this week and it’s a good attribute for the future.”
Esterhuizen admitted that he was comfortable with fulfilling the “hybrid role” for the world champions.
“If I wasn’t willing, I wouldn’t have played today. I’m definitely willing to learn to slot into a hybrid role that can cover forwards and backs. I think it will help me as a player, personally, and it can help the team as well, so hopefully, we can see more that in the future.”
Esterhuizen opened up on the conversations he had with Bok coach Rassie Erasmus about playing at flank.
“It has been brought up in the past, then just shrugged off, from different perspectives and different people, and as I get older, you learn how you can slot in everywhere, how you can get yourself in the team more, you have to adapt yourself as a player. For me, I’m looking forward to what it can be and what it can work out to be.”
Stormers front rower, Neethling Fouché, was thrilled to get the chance to make his first appearance in the green and gold.
“Unbelievable. It’s a cliche, but you dream of it when you start playing rugby and I’ve had a bit of a grondpad to get here but I’m trying to enjoy it, soak it in. It was a Barbarians game but it felt like a Test match. I know the score was high but it was still very physical out there.”
Fouché on what it meant to make his Bok debut in the same place he plays his franchise rugby.
“It’s difficult to control your emotions as you’re singing the national anthem and literally all my family was here for the game. As soon as they heard I was playing, they just booked the tickets all the way from Rustenburg. It’s a dream come true. You watch the Springboks and you just dream of playing for them and I got a chance to do that today. It’s just so awesome.”
