Andre Esterhuizen says that he is shocked that Toulouse will be sending a full-strength team to take on the Sharks in the Investec Champions Cup.
Toulouse notably made the decision to heavily rotate their side for the Top 14 clash against La Rochelle on Sunday.
Ugo Mola’s young outfit put in a strong performance against their fellow French powerhouse, falling to a 22-19 defeat courtesy of a late Antoine Hastoy penalty to decide the match which was level on 80 minutes.
Antoine Dupont set for Sharks showdown
This suggests that Toulouse’s top stars will be in action in Durban this weekend as the defending Champions Cup winners look to go back-to-back in the tournament, starting with an unbeaten pool stage.
Likely to be included in the travelling squad is France captain Antoine Dupont who is primed to add to just his second appearance in the southern hemisphere, with his only other game being his Test debut against the Springboks where he came off the bench to play 27 minutes.
With some of the best players France have to offer set to be in action and with so many Springboks on the Sharks‘ payroll, Esterhuizen predicts a ‘tough game’ this weekend.
While the 30-year-old will miss the clash after sustaining a knee injury against the Stormers after a nasty clearout at a ruck, he is excited to watch the game.
“I’m not playing this weekend, so it’s going to be good to watch. It’s a lot of big stars, big names playing in this game,” he said on The Rugby Pod.
“It’s obviously always a tough task in the Champions Cup. I did think that Toulouse were going to send a second string (side), but (it) doesn’t look like it.
“It’s top players playing each other, it’s going to be a tough game and it’s going to be good to watch.”
Antoine Dupont set for first southern hemisphere appearance in almost eight years
Not just taking part
South African teams have been accused of not taking the Champions Cup seriously since they joined the competition, with the Bulls notably sending over a weakened team to tackle Northampton in the play-offs last season.
Last time out in the competition, the Sharks and Stormers both got hammered by Premiership clubs after largely second-choice teams were sent over to the United Kingdom while the Bulls were defeated by Saints at home.
Esterhuizen says that the Sharks are taking the tournament seriously and explained that only two players missed the heavy defeat to Leicester Tigers.
Still the team are not getting too carried away as they are first targetting a place in the play-offs.
“Obviously, you don’t want to play in the Champions Cup just to take part,” he said.
“You want to make play-offs and put yourself in a position to win the Cup, especially when you’ve signed quite a few big names. I mean, it’s the biggest competition in the world at club level.
“For us it’s to perform and qualify for the round of 16 or play-offs and from there we can take it and set new goals but for us, the first thing is to get there which is the big one.”
Andre Esterhuizen reveals the ‘strange’ aspect of playing in the north compared to Super Rugby
Home-ground advantage is one of those goals with the Sharks’ clash with Toulouse closing in on a sell-out crowd.
“We would obviously love it [home advantage in the play-offs], it’s not easy to come and play and Durban especially in these conditions at the moment,” continued Esterhuizen.
“The ball is like slime in your hands when you start sweating and it’s humid and hot. But the thing is for us, we probably would have sent a different team to Leicester if we didn’t have so many niggles and injuries.
“I think from the ten players that we didn’t send, eight were injured anyway, so people think that we’re not taking the competition seriously.
“Obviously we take it seriously but we just didn’t have players to put out a full-strength team.
“We obviously want home-ground advantage and it’s still possible. We need to obviously win the next two and get a bonus point here or there. That is the main goal for us.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/springboks-star-admits-surprise-at-toulouses-decision-as-antoine-dupont-and-co-primed-for-tough-durban-clash
