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'Looking good': Esterhuizen on Springboks recall and Owen Farrell
By Liam Heagney
Harlequins midfielder Andre Esterhuizen has spoken about his chances of a Springboks recall this month and about this weekend’s appetising prospect of getting to run at Owen Farrell for the first time since being on the receiving end of that infamous tackle from the England player in November 2018.
The 28-year-old South African powerhouse won the last of his eight Test caps in August 2019, missing out on World Cup finals selection, but he is now back on the Springboks radar and tipped for a recall for the upcoming three-Test series versus Wales next month.
Asked during an appearance on this week’s The Rugby Pod about his Springboks situation, Esterhuizen commented: “Obviously, we are chatting at the moment to see how things go.
“They will only announce the squad once South African teams fall out of the URC. Two teams are in the semi-final this weekend so we will see what happens but there is a lot of chat at the moment. I can’t say too much but it’s looking good.”
Switching to this Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership semi-final which will see defending champions Harlequins put their title on the line at Saracens, Esterhuizen referenced the fierce rivalry between both clubs and the prospect of him playing against Farrell for the first time in four years since that X-rated no arms wrapped tackle was deemed legal at Twickenham.
Farrell nailed Esterhuizen with a huge tackle in the final minutes of that England win and referee Angus Gardner deemed the hotly debated challenge as fair. “It’s actually the first time we have played against each other again since that game,” said Esterhuizen. “It’s a normal question, I actually run at every ten every weekend so if he is playing ten I am probably going to run at him. We’ll see what happens.
“Yeah, it’s spoken about every game we play them,” he added about the Quins-Sarries rivalry. “I understand 100 per cent the hatred between the two clubs. It’s a very emotional game for both sides. It is going to be a big one and I'm looking forward to it a lot.”
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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