St Esterhuizen??
He was turned into a Saint by his site supporters - LOL
Esterhuizen, has done well for himself without your support or concerns.
He is a great #12 and he has proven his class with the Durban Sharks, Springboks and in the English league.
Unfortunately he plays for the Sharks once more because but if he played for the Stormers your might have seen his talent and his class.
If you paid attention to the last Springbok vs the All Blacks test you might have been enlightened and enjoyed his play perhaps.
Wishful thinking AJ, Clever could watch that game 50 times and he’d see nothing Esterhozen did which was any good.
Mozart
I give credit where credit is due. F irst of aall I do give him cedit for the two tries he scored - but neither had anything to do with power play lie you claimed. In the first one he had an open line withoot any defenders in sight and an open tryline in fromt of him. In tehsecond one he had the weakest defender in the the AB team - Baeuden Barett to beat who made a feeble attack to tackle him/ So no power play at all in evidence sd you claimed, Both tries were created by other players and he just had to finish it off,
His record over the last two years in both Tets and URC level was not all that brilliant either, He is not a creative player and tend to lose balls after ball carries and he is not a top defender anyway. He is a slow player and often out of position player when it comes to defense and in is not good in defense line when the opposition attacked, Why did Erasmus left him out of the RWC squad in 2019? Answer he had too many negatives in both defene and attack. When Kriel got injured - Erasmus called up the 20 yeasr old Willeme to replace him. In his first test ever Willemse scored a power try. There is a difference - Willemse is a creative player very good in defense and creative in attack. He proved it again on Satirday,
At best Esterhuizen was a fringe player who never had been a first choice 12. At 31 years of age he has never syaked the claim in the 12 position as a front line player and never will be. Engebrecht this year was used at flank in two tests and he did not produce the goods ever,
I am not really impressed by him for variety of reasons - one example I mentioned above, namely in break down ball protection and posession turnover in such cases,
Sorry AJH
Remember I lived in KZN fior 40 years and that was the longest period and was a big Sharks supporter. I even for many ears had a season ticket at Kings Park. I lived in Stormer country - that was (then WP) for two years amd grew up in the South Western Districts for 28 years and in Pretoria for 13 years. I never really supported the Bulls and the reason was that if you merely came for the Cape Province the locls regarded you as a traitor. In that time we made fun of rugby and enjoyed it,
I can remember once when working in Durban we were called to Pretoria for a meeting on budgetary issues the Thursday before Easter weekend, With no air or rail tickets available - so returning to Durban there were a huge traffic jam. From a rugby perspective one of the bosses in Durban was an avid Cheetah (then Free State) and the one n Pretoria a fanatic Bulls supporter, In one case when stopped there was a huge area where there were hundreds of cattle and hundreds of dried out "miskoeke". So we collected some of those for fun purposes. With the first one we put it in an ash tray in the Free State suporte office call it Free State amora - but it caused a mesds and the ofice ahd to be repainted afterwards. A week before the Sharks beat the Bulls in a rugby match - so we parcelled up two "miskoeke" with many covers and filled up the box with waste paper and in the bottom we put the following - *This is all that remains of the "Mighty Blue Bulls" and mailed it to the Bull avid Bulls supporter in Pretora, At that is where the real trouble started. At the time there were soe bomb attacks in both Pretoria and Durban - so on receipt of the unexpected parcel the Bulls supporter called in the Police before opening the parcel and in the end found the real contents and note, We really enjoed it when the Police got involved when we heard what happened and I believed the Policeman involved laughed for days afterwards.
I must tell you sonmething about the bomb attack in the office block where my office was, On the Wednesday before the attack took place I got a mysterious call from somebody telling me to ensure that the building where I worked must be guarded by the Police during the next week, I suspected it was a person linked to the ANC - but that was only a guess of mine. One of the Senior oficials in the same office was always in close liaison with the Seciruty Police so I told him about the phone call and the advice I was given/ He said that the Security Police would know if something like a bomb attack would take place, I was living n a flat not far away from the office and the Tuesday morning at about 5am I heard a huge explosion and cursed them not following up on my warning. The damage was massive on the ground floor so I turned up at the office at 07:30 and the boss was there and said why I did not hurry to the office. My comment was caustic and brief - I warned you abut this is gong to happen so now I have to manage the repair work. In 1995 I was n Cape Town and went to Parlaiment to see a friend of mine who was then Assistant Secretary of Parliament and he took me for lunch in the member diningroom. The chap I suspected of phoning was an ANC MP and he came to the table where I was eating to greet me and smiling I just said "By the way thanks for that phone call". I worked with him in providing a school for mentally handicapped children, After that the Police tapped all phone calls for at least five years to me and started following me wherever I went, I did not like that at all, There were other phone calls as well about issues and since I did not really knew who phoned me I refuse to give any names to the Police or even seniors in the office. I would never mess up the lves of people based on a suspicion of mine without any evidence to support it.
Ou Maaik can't analyze the game any deeper than tries. That's why he's been banging on about tries as a measure of contribution even for locks. He didn't even spot Esterhuizen's pass to Kolbe in the last test.
Two of our best players in that AB drubbing were Wiese and AE.
Mike and Dawie hate it...and I friggin love it.
I'm a big Hanekom fan, but getting the jersey off of Wiese is a tall order. Especially when you compare those two AB games. It's night and day.
Do we have another forward whose absence is felt that much? Perhaps Ox or Wilco.
Wiese was immense, almost Vermeulen like in the carry. Watching again, what was astonishing was NZ's willingness to kick on him at every restart even though he made at least "gainline" every carry.
On AE, he was so much better than just his well taken try. That pass for Kolbe's try, later on a swerve and over the head pass to get Williams away that almost led to a try for Moody. His protection at the ruck and his gainline success were all great.
This try! Right at the end of a perfect performance.
Andre is the man!
https://youtube.com/shorts/hKT4llWi6XQ?si=Snbt5fuQEQAZNE7Z
On AE, he was so much better than just his well taken try. That pass for Kolbe's try, later on a swerve and over the head pass to get Williams away that almost led to a try for Moody. His protection at the ruck and his gainline success were all great.
No no, he did fuck all. Ask Dave.
The Dumb uncle has obviously gone ahead and swallowed the Red Pill….no wonder the absolute trashy nonsense getting posted here on this Forum.
Andre Esterhuizen Sharks highlights
https://youtu.be/YcvlQIq4sPg?si=zE3vw7POEgHSU2R2
Erasmus has advanced computer analysis of every player on the field and that means that he actually know exactly ever detail what Esterhuizen did during the match. I said compared to his normal performances he always produced he did well in the AB test - but I and am sure Rassie saw nothing of the raving you lot saw. He was gifted a try by Willemse's action and for the rest he did not do anything really top class,
The problem will really really different from the AB test, One of the deadliest atacks of the Pumas are running through the flyhalf and inside center defense line and being pacy tey would exploit the slow paced Estehuizen and the poor tackler repeatedly. That is what I said may influence selection and it did. Ponblem with Esterhuizen he is not all that good a defemder and is slow in responding to attacks and often out of the defense line. Aside from that Esterhuizen is not a good protector of balls at breakdowns and I have never seen him once making a turnover at breakdowns. So despite all yur praisesongs cooler ehads will always prevail.
I will give you a further difference - there was a few cses where De Allende had to scrum dn as a oosie and after the scrum or line out he would ran back to the inside center position and be their to defend - while Esterhuizen stand around the scrum clueless about is next move. He is likely to be a loosie replacement tomrrow and watch what happens in such circumstances.
I can remember reading somewhere that when Prince Edward presented his girlfriend the Queen said "nobody would notice her in a crowd". Yet after marriage she became a favorite of the queen and is now the Duches of Edinburgh.
The same applies to Esterhuizen as a player during most matches - nobody woulrd really notice him when he is amongst ther players,
Dr Lucky, he couldn’t pass Std 8 maths, but he is doing advanced computer analysis of every player on the field….. bwaaaaaaahahaha.
If he did it himself the computer analysis would be about as good as Clever’s spelling.
Unfortunately you know zero about rugby - so stick to things you know of. Spouting BS about rugby is not showing anything bar idiocy.
Butut then Erasmus does not ue the honorary Doctorate and it is stupid of you to clainm oterwuse abnd Erasmus is the most sfccessful coach in the history iof S A Rugby - so your comments are ultra BS.
56,476 posts
Read the following and t hen tell me what yu think about his usage:-
Springbok loose forward Kwagga Smith offered some tips on how his teammate, André Esterhuizen, can improve his game as a hybrid player.
Esterhuizen has made a couple of appearances for the Boks as a flanker so far this season.
His first was as a replacement during an international friendly against the Barbarians, and the other against Italy when he shifted to the side of the scrum following Jasper Wiese’s red card.
The bulky 114-kilogram centre seamlessly slotted into the No.6 role.
Depending on the match situation, he could be utilised in the same capacity against Argentina this Saturday at Kings Park.
“I’ve known Andre [Esterhuizen] for a long time.
“We actually played Sevens together. He was a tighthead [prop] and I was a hooker, so we played together in the forwards.
“He’s got the size and physicality, and he is massive.
“The only area he could get a little better at is the technical stuff in the set-pieces, that’s about it.
“We as loose forwards play with width in our attacking structure, and on defence we defend on the outside channels.
“That’s not a big difference for him shifting from centre to loose forward.
“The only areas he could be better in are in the line-outs and scrums, but I must add he’s been quite good at it.
“He’s used every opportunity in unit sessions and in training to do [line-out] lifts and other work when he trains at No.6.
“If he needs to play there, he will definitely be comfortable doing so, and it will be quite exciting to see.”
Kwagha left out a major problem St Esterhuizen has - he ahs no idea about ball protection at nreadowns and cannot turn over balls in such situations.
My guess is he wil be used as a flank and not allowed anywhere near the number 12 position.