Tony Brown praises 'one-man wrecking machine' Esterhuizen's impact off the bench

Despite playing most of their match against France in Paris at the weekend with 14 men after Lood de Jager was red carded for foul play, the Springboks adapted almost immediately to that setback with Esterhuizen playing a big part in helping his side to beat Les Bleus at the Stade de France.

The 31-year-old, who usually plays as an inside centre, was on the world champions' bench as a hybrid player and in the 48th minute replaced the Boks' first choice number 12 Damian de Allende. Esterhuizen wasn't just filling in for the Bok centre, however - Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus also used him to play on the flank in the tight exchanges.

That tactic proved a masterstroke, with Esterhuizen helping the Boks dominate the scrums and mauls - ultimately being rewarded with a try from a driving maul in the 65th minute - while also taking his place in the midfield when the Boks needed his defensive grit.

This was not Esterhuizen's first time in the hybrid role for his country. He was initially deployed in the position during the Boks' 54-7 victory over the Barbarians in Cape Town in June, and later featured in the same role in South Africa's 43-10 Rugby Championship win against the All Blacks in Wellington in September.

Brown revealed it was Esterhuizen's cameo off the bench in Wellington, when three of their backline players were replaced in the opening half, which helped them to decide on the make-up of their bench for the France Test.

"Having Andre float between the forwards and the backs is crucial for us going forward," he said. "I think his ability to scrum more, carry with the forwards, but then also defend with the backs or attack with the backs is a massive advantage for us.

"Having him in Wellington, he made an amazing impact in that game and then against France, outstanding as well.

"He's become a bit of a, we call him a hybrid, but he's a one-man wrecking machine."

Brown hailed the Boks' adaptability when they had their backs against the proverbial wall in Paris.

"It was an outstanding effort going down to 14 men and still being able to not only survive at the start of that second half, where we were under pressure a lot from France," he added.

"So defensively, boys were just working so hard and just making everything as difficult as possible for France and then once we changed momentum and got a little bit of momentum, our ability to make the most of every opportunity we got.

"We only ended up in the French 22 six times or five times and we scored four tries, so being able to execute really well there and obviously adapt to the red card and players playing multiple positions was excellent."

The Boks' next encounter is against Italy at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday and Brown said they are now fully focused on that task after reaching that high in Paris.

"Not many teams can have a performance like we did against France and then back that up, so we all understand that and we all know that every minute that we have it on the training field and all of our meetings," he said.

"They've got to have a real purpose to get back up to that intensity and get our preparation right to what is a very good Italian team.

"It's going to be a massive challenge for us this week, but it's Test rugby and you've got to be able to do it and the players have got to be able to do it, so we'll be pushing them hard to get ready."

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