Tighthead Thomas du Toit has named the two players in Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks squad that he would ‘definitely’ describe as ‘absolute freaks of nature’.
Having finished off his involvement in the recent title-winning Rugby Championship campaign with a start against Argentina in London on October 4, the front-rower has returned to Bath where he made his first PREM Rugby appearance on Saturday in the 2025/26 season.
Du Toit was a 53rd-minute replacement for England international Will Stuart in Bath’s 38-17 demolition of Gloucester in what will be his final season at the club before he returns to South Africa to take up a four-year deal at the Sharks.
It’s a switch that will leave Du Toit based in Durban with the Springboks plotting to win their third consecutive Rugby World Cup in 2027.
“He is monstrous…”
Those plans are looking very encouraging for Erasmus and co. following their completion of back-to-back Rugby Championship titles with a campaign in which their four wins in six matches came with plenty of rotation to enhance the level of their squad depth ahead of the finals in Australia.
This feel-good factor surrounding the Springboks meant that Du Toit was a very engaging guest on the last edition of the Maul Or Nothing podcast. One of the teasing questions he willingly embraced was an invitation from Max Lahiff, the Bristol prop, to name the players he believes are the biggest freaks in Erasmus’ South African squad.
“Jan-Hendrick (Wessels) is very to the top, he can mostly do everything,” reckoned Du Toit. “You see that guy’s work rate when he runs around, like it is really impressive. But then I would probably throw in a guy like Andre Esterhuizen.
“He has been labelled this hybrid player (who can play in the forwards as well as the backs). He is also actually a freak. He is monstrous, and what he did in the Premiership (with Harlequins) was also spectacular.
“Every time he touches the ball for the Springboks, something happens. Look at that carry when he scored that try against Beauden Barrett. He shrugged him off. It looked quite easy, but for a guy like him it probably was quite easy. I would say between those two, definitely absolute freaks of nature.”
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The Esterhuizen try mentioned by Du Toit came in the 79th minute of the Springboks’ Championship hammering of the All Blacks in Wellington. Beaten 17-24 in Auckland in Round Three of the tournament, South Africa hit back the following week to produce a record-shattering 43-10 dismissal of their fiercest rivals.
This dismantling of the All Blacks in the closing 20 minutes was something Du Toit watched from the sidelines after laying the foundations for South Africa’s backs to strike following an energetic pack display.
“I was sitting on the sidelines at that stage and seeing this unfold in front of me was definitely a little bit weird,” he said, reflecting on seeing the All Blacks suffer a record-setting pasting.
“I really didn’t think it was going to work out that way because normally when that happens, we score two quickish tries and New Zealand would come back and it would be a close game again. You’re 100 per cent right, it was a little bit strange but we played well. The forwards laid the foundation and the backs really opened it up towards the end of that game.
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“It was so nice to see everything linking up and just gelling perfectly. I know we use that word gel quite loosely, but it really felt like everything came together that day. Every coach and player you want that every week, but the reality is it doesn’t (happen). But in that moment in that game, you could really feel like it was a shift.
“It felt like the game worked out very well for us. We tried to nullify everything they did in the first half, we really tried to work them as hard as we possibly can and when our bench came on, they did such a good job at getting across the line and actually scoring the tries.
“It felt like we did the foundation work in the first half, and then we just let loose in the second half. The one doesn’t come without the other… it really gelled well.”