There’s a couple of reasons why DHL Stormers coach John Dobson should be feeling that sense of being up against something he is familiar with and on a road he has travelled before ahead of Saturday’s round of 16 Heineken Champions Cup clash in Cape Town, and one of them is Andre Esterhuizen.
The Stormers coach spent a lot of time trying to stop Esterhuizen giving the Cell C Sharks go forward ball in his stint as Western Province Currie Cup coach between 2015 and when the bulky Springbok inside centre left for his current club, Harlequins, in 2019.
Sometimes his team got it right, sometimes they didn’t, but Dobson knows what a threat Esterhuizen can be, and what a valuable role he always plays for whatever team he represents in his role of getting the ball across the gainline.
Esterhuizen, now into his fourth season with Harlequins, is expected to be wearing the No 12 for the English club when they visit Cape Town on Saturday for a game that is expected to draw a massive crowd to the DHL Stadium.
Although Esterhuizen is the only former Sharks player in the Harlequins backline, he is not the only former Shark in their team, with skipper Stefan Lewies also a key cog in the Harlequins game plan.
“It is a bit like playing the Sharks of a while ago, in the sense that we know how important Andre Esterhuizen was to their game back then and he is doing the same for Harlequins,” said Dobson after his team’s 22-all draw with Leinster in the top of the table Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at the RDS Arena at the weekend.
“He was the guy who got the Sharks go forward when he played for them and he does the same for Harlequins. So it is going to be an imperative for us that we stop him and have a plan. What is also a bit like playing the Sharks is their scrumhalf. Danny Care has the kind of X-factor that we see from Grant Williams when he plays No 9 for the Sharks.”
IT'S LIKE VERSUS LIKE
That sense of déjà vu should not just focus around the presence of Esterhuizen and Dobson’s perception that Care plays a similar style to Williams.
It should also centre on the fact that in some ways, in this game the Stormers are playing against a team that is similar to themselves.
The Harlequins are renowned for their willingness to give the ball air and chance their arm on attack, something that enabled them to win the English Premiership not that long ago.
Quins aren’t in the same form now that they were when they were title winners, and after losing to 36-24 away to Saracens at the weekend, they have now won just one of their last eight English Premiership matches.
That’s obviously nothing to inspire confidence in their chances of winning at a venue where the Stormers haven’t lost since December 2021, but Dobson is understandably wary of opposition who, if the passes stick, can beat the Stormers at their own game.
“It’s going to be a great spectacle, with Danny Care there, Joe Marchant, Esterhuizen, and they have great skill in their halfbacks,” the Stormers coach said.
“They play great attractive rugby and have a similar mindset to ours, they like playing with quick ball so we are going to have to place a big emphasis on slowing their ball down. Hopefully we will have 50 000 there to watch what could be a special game.”
SMITH IS A BIG DANGER
When Dobson mentioned the halfbacks he would have also been referencing the No 10 wizard Marcus Smith. Although he was upstaged by his England teammate Owen Farrell in the Saracens game, Smith has the exciting approach to flyhalf play that the Stormers’ Manie Libbok does and the two players have very similar strengths.
Dobson will know that Smith needs to be watched carefully as he was one of the differences between the teams when the Harlequins outplayed the Sharks at The Stoop earlier in the season.
Esterhuizen isn’t of course the only visiting player the Stormers know well. Apart from Esterhuizen and Lewies, there is also Wilco Louw, the Ceres produced tighthead prop who was the anvil of the WP scrum that destroyed the Sharks in laying the foundation for victory in the 2017 Currie Cup final in Durban.
Louw, who is on his way to the Vodacom Bulls next season, is a formidable scrummager and produces more in general play than his bulky physique might suggest.
MALHERBE ONLY INJURY CONCERN
Talking about tighthead props, Bok first choice front row powerhouse Frans Malherbe was the only minor Stormers injury concern after the highly physical face off with Leinster at the weekend.
“Frans got a bit of a stinger on the shoulder, but we understand it isn’t too serious and hopefully that is the case,” said Dobson.
“Otherwise there were no injury concerns from the Leinster game, which is a win for us if you consider how attritional that contest was.”