{"id":495915,"date":"2025-10-13T10:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495915\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:37:15","slug":"thomas-du-toit-labels-two-springboks-absolute-freaks-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495915\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas du Toit labels two Springboks \u2018absolute freaks of nature\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tighthead Thomas du Toit has named the two players in Rassie Erasmus\u2019 Springboks squad that he would \u2018definitely\u2019 describe as \u2018absolute freaks of nature\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Du Toit was a 53rd-minute replacement for England international Will Stuart in Bath\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a switch that will leave Du Toit based in Durban with the Springboks<\/a> plotting to win their third consecutive Rugby World Cup in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is monstrous\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. 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\u2019 South African squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cJan-Hendrick (Wessels) is very to the top, he can mostly do everything,\u201d reckoned Du Toit. \u201cYou see that guy\u2019s work rate when he runs around, like it is really impressive. But then I would probably throw in a guy like Andre Esterhuizen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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<\/a> (with Harlequins) was also spectacular.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas du Toit breaks silence on his \u2018right decision\u2019 transfer and names \u2018a unique ability\u2019 that Rassie Erasmus has<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Scary fact\u2019 has England greats \u2018mightily impressed\u2019 with Rassie Erasmus\u2019 Springboks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Esterhuizen try mentioned by Du Toit came in the 79th minute of the Springboks\u2019 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s backs to strike following an energetic pack display.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting on the sidelines at that stage and seeing this unfold in front of me was definitely a little bit weird,\u201d he said, reflecting on seeing the All Blacks suffer a record-setting pasting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really didn\u2019t 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\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

All Blacks legend reveals the Rassie Erasmus ploy which Scott Robertson is copying<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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\u2019t (happen). But in that moment in that game, you could really feel like it was a shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like we did the foundation work in the first half, and then we just let loose in the second half. The one doesn\u2019t come without the other\u2026 it really gelled well.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-All Blacks coach reveals \u2018mental lapse\u2019 as part of the reason why New Zealand are behind Springboks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tighthead Thomas du Toit has named the two players in Rassie Erasmus\u2019 Springboks squad that he would \u2018definitely\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[225,90462,12,4151,33131,2196,79,54565,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-495915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-home-page","9":"tag-internationals","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-rugby-championship","13":"tag-south-africa","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-thomas-du-toit","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115366425117889354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}