Andre Esterhuizen refutes 'lucky' jibes thrown at Springboks

Andre Esterhuizen is adamant there is no chance of South Africa taking their current sense of buoyancy for granted after they arrived in the UK for their three-Test Autumn Series.

The Springboks have won the last two World Cups and further underlined their credentials by winning five of their six matches against New Zealand, Australia and Argentina in this summer’s Rugby Championship.

Rassie Erasmus’ formidable side will be expected to add further victories against Scotland, England and Wales over the next three weekends.

“For rugby players, it’s one day you can be at the top of the world, the next day you can lose to anyone,” said Sharks centre Esterhuizen, speaking from the team’s Edinburgh hotel.

“So, yes, it’s good to have confidence and a bit of an aura, but also you know that any team at the top 10 could probably beat you on any given day.

“And that’s rugby. We just focus every week on being the best we can that week and obviously, strive to be better. You can’t always be at the top and think you can’t get better.”

South Africa have developed a knack for coming out on the right side of tight matches – most notably at last year’s World Cup – and Esterhuizen believes their resilience is one of the qualities that sets them apart.

“Yeah, I think it’s probably something that everyone speaks about, but obviously the fight in the team,” he said.

“A lot of people say, ‘it’s lucky, it’s this, it’s that’, but I know obviously South African players’ mindset is, even if we’re down and out, we’re going to keep on fighting until the end.

“We always have that mindset to fight through every battle, through every game. It doesn’t matter how close the margin or if you’re behind or in front, you keep on fighting, you don’t rest.”

Esterhuizen believes South Africa will have to combat one of the top centre pairings in Huw Jones, his former Harlequins team-mate, and recently-appointed Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu on Sunday.

“They’re a great centre pair,” he said.

“We’ve watched many games of them tearing up through defences in the international set-up, and as well for Glasgow.

“I played with Huw Jones for a couple of years at Harlequins, so I know him quite well. He’d just joined Quins and he was in between positions, and then he found a position and he played really, really well.

“I know Quins didn’t actually want to let him go, but eventually things worked out for him to go to Glasgow, and he settled in so nicely in the 13 position for Glasgow and obviously got back into the Scotland squad.”

South Africa kicked off their run to World Cup glory last year with an 18-3 pool-stage victory over Scotland in Marseille, but Esterhuizen is braced for a tough test at Murrayfield.

“The game at the World Cup wasn’t a walk in a park,” he said.

“It was still quite a tough battle. Half-time we came in, it was 6-3, it was very close. You can always expect a tough battle against Scotland.”