When opposition sides visited The Gnoll in the 1980s, players were known to go down with ‘Neath flu’, a mystery illness that rendered them incapable of taking the rugby field that weekend but which would clear up the moment the aforementioned match against the then fearsome Welsh All Blacks was over.
Fun and games.
Fast-forward to the modern day and there are no reports of players dropping out when encountering Harlequins’ 6ft 4in, 17st 11lb centre Andre Esterhuizen. But he is a player who concentrates minds.
“When I played for Worcester against Quins, I was thinking ‘the last thing I need is Andre coming off the back of a lineout here’,” laughed his old Stoop team-mate Scott Baldwin.
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“"He is a handful, has been in outstanding form and was recently the players’ choice as Gallagher Premiership player of the year. He’s been unbelievable for Quins for the past two seasons.”
Andre the giant is Wales’ problem this weekend. He has been picked at inside centre in a much-changed South Africa side to face Wayne Pivac’s team in Bloemfontein.
The issue for opponents is that the big man relishes contact. Harlequins head of rugby Tabai Matson has called him “an agent of chaos on the pitch for our opposition", presumably because one strong carry from Esterhuizen can splinter a team’s defensive operation.
Baldwin said: “Jamie Roberts is big, but Andre has that nasty streak on the pitch. When he's off the field, he's completely different, but give him the ball during a game and if he has options of running around you or running through you, he’ll want to run through you.
“He’s hard to deal with on it. In the Saracens v Harlequins game towards the end of the season, he even bumped Billy Vunipola — and Billy had a yellow card for it.”
The good news for Wales is that Nick Tompkins coped well with Esterhuizen in the Saracens v Harlequins game last month. You can read more about Esterhuizen here.
Tompkins missed next to nothing in defence and excelled in attack on the day. Esthuizen did beat six Sarries defenders but he didn’t make one clean break, with Tompkins’ intelligence and alertness in defence to the fore.
Baldwin, Wales’ World Cup hooker from 2015, is hoping, too, that Wayne Pivac use George North more in attack in the second Test this weekend. He made just one run and put in one pass in the first encounter between the sides, with his duties mainly confined to defence.
“I’d like to see Wales get the ball to George a bit more,” said Baldwin.
“In the Ospreys v Scarlets game at the end of April, not everyone picked up on the influence he had on the match. The Scarlets were winning at half-time, then George came on at 13 and Keelan Giles had an unbelievable second half.
"The thing that a lot of people missed was that the Scarlets had to use two players to defend George. It created the space to give Keelan an extra two to three metres on the outside. Whether he’s running hard or creating space for others, George is a big player.
"Opposition sides have to defend him. Some players may think ‘I’ll keep half an eye on him, I know I have time to get back and cover him’, but if a defender turns his shoulder on George he’s gone. He’s 110 kilos (17st 4lb) and quick with it.
“I’d like to see the ball reaching him more off starter plays, even if it means using him at 12 for first phase. You wouldn’t want him running straight at Andre, but just get him involved as much as possible. He’s so powerful and he has a really good skillset for a big man, something people forget.”
That said, Wales have more to think about on Saturday than South Africa’s power-running in midfield.
The Springboks may have made 14 changes to the side that won the first Test but the team they are putting out is formidable in almost every respect.
“In some areas, it’s even stronger than the one they field last Saturday,” said Baldwin.
“Not many teams in the world can put out a back-row like the one South Africa will use against Wales this weekend.
“People can say the side is second choice, but I’m pretty sure Pieter-Steph du Toit and Marcell Coetzee will have something to say about that, while Evan Roos is the United Rugby Championship’s player of the year.
“You look at the backline. Handre Pollard is their first-choice No. 10, while I think Andre should always start at 12 and Jesse Kriel was part of the Boks' 2019 World Cup-winning squad.
“And they have a lot of pace in their back three. Accepted, maybe the front row isn’t quite as strong, but not much more needs to be said about Etzebeth at lock and Marvin Orie is good alongside him.
“You just wonder how many of those players in South Africa’s side this weekend would northern hemisphere Test teams like to have in their starting XVs.
“Quite a few, I’d imagine. Wales are going to need to really play well because they are up against a very good side.”
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