Marco van Staden played a game for the Springboks at hooker during the 2023 Rugby World Cup but that was before the new buzzword that came about through a Rassie Erasmus invention came to be in vogue. Hybrid.
That’s what Andre Esterhuizen, normally a centre but now also covering flank, is referred to as. And to be fair, the role he fills is substantively different to the one that Van Staden, normally a loose-forward, will be expected to fill when the Boks face Italy in their third Quilter Autumn Series match in Turin on Saturday afternoon. In the sense that he isn’t expected to flit between the forwards and the backs.
But it isn’t that much different. They may both be forward roles, but there’s a wide chasm of difference between what a hooker does and what a flank or No 8 does, the memory of what Deon Fourie did at that aforementioned World Cup notwithstanding. At least Fourie had played his initial rugby years in the front row. That’s not the case for Van Staden.
And was probably the reason that Erasmus mentioned Esterhuizen in the same sentence when explaining one of his more left field selections for Saturday’s game - Van Staden’s installation as the hooker back-up to the starting No 2, Johan Grobbelaar.
“We’ve been doing this with Marco over the past few years. You will remember that he played a World Cup game for us against Tonga in the front row,” said Erasmus.
“It is like what we have done with Andre (Esterhuizen). We will build it up slowly. We tried Andre as a flank first in the game against the Barbarians, and then only after that went okay did we back him to play in the bigger games.
"We are in a position where we think if he gets through this game against Italy well then it is a box ticked and we can try it again later on.
“Of course it could backfire on us, but then it is at least a case of us finding out and knowing. Then we know we have to make a different plan,” he added.
WILL HELP THWART ITALIAN BREAKDOWN THREAT
Erasmus didn’t duck the question around whether what he was doing had an element of risk to it but said he was convinced that Van Staden had the potential to make a success of his ‘hybrid’ role.
“There is no doubt risk, but he is one of the fittest guys and we want to see whether it will work,” said the Bok coach.
“It won’t be for a full 80 minutes. Of course if there is an injury that plan might change, but if he plays hooker it will only be later in the game because we want to give Grobbies a good run there. He played against Tonga there, there will be added pressure and he will make mistakes, but it is a planned risk.
"If the game is close and it doesn’t go right we will find out. Naturally we want to win this game, but if you lose and you know the plan didn’t work then at least you know.
“Obviously the big question is around how he goes in the lineouts and the scrums. But we know he will be good at the breakdowns (which is another part of a hooker’s role). He is brilliant at that. We know he will be very big at the breakdowns.”
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Indeed, if you imagine how good Van Staden could be operating in tandem with Kwagga Smith, who is down as a looseforward reserve for this game and the man who would replace the man known as ‘Eskom’ at No 8 should he move to hooker, you can see another method to Erasmus’ selection.
For Italy’s breakdown work is something the Boks are rightly wary of after what happened in the Pretoria game between the two teams in July, where the Boks really struggled to get quick ball and were outplayed in the second half.
“They are really good at the breakdown and we didn’t just get frustrated in that game, we were outplayed (at the breakdown). In that one game they had 66 bites at the breakdown, that’s just in one game! It shows you what a focus they have technically and they have a good understanding of when to do it. They gave us something to sort out.”
PORTHEN HAS IMPRESSED IN SCRUM SESSIONS
When it comes to the other selection that might be considered left field, that being the recall of the 21-year-old Zachary Porthen for his second test match in the green-and-gold, Erasmus made it clear that the Stormers youngster, who used to be known more for his all-round game than specifically his scrumming, has impressed him in training.
“We lost Ox (Nche), we are still without Mchunu (Ntuthuko Mchunu) and we have also lost (the weight of) Lood (de Jager) in the second row. So definitely we are saving Thomas (du Toit) a little bit for the Irish test match. We also won’t have him for the game against Wales the following week.
“We have an inexperienced front row, Boan (Venter) has played just a few games, I think Grobbies is on five or six caps, and Zach has played just the one game (against Japan). But we have security in the fact that the two props on the bench play a lot together (at the Bulls) and obviously Marco is covering hooker.
“Zac might struggle in the scrums. We are not sure. We will find out. But we have decided to give him another chance because we see what he does against Gerhard (Steenekamp) in scrum sessions.”
Porthen would have been on a sharp learning curve under the guidance of Brok Harris at the Stormers and would have continued that under Daan Human’s watch at the Boks. In both environments, the scrum sessions and assimilated match situations the players face during the week are often considered to be tougher than what they face on match days.