{"id":902543,"date":"2026-09-23T13:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902543\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T13:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:18:24","slug":"danny-care-new-springboks-captain-might-be-the-best-player-ive-ever-played-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902543\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Care: New Springboks captain might be the best player I\u2019ve ever played with"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time Andre Esterhuizen played for Harlequins<\/a> a thought struck Danny Care. \u201cThis guy,\u201d mused the England star, \u201cmight be the best player I\u2019ve ever played with\u201d.<\/p>\n

Care had 84 caps to his name and been an international for 12 years. He had played alongside some of rugby\u2019s biggest names, from Jonny Wilkinson and Owen Farrell to Nick Evans and Marcus Smith.<\/p>\n

Yet here was this South African centre, who had failed to make the Springboks<\/a>\u2019 World Cup squad and not come close to making a Green and Gold shirt his own, blowing his mind with the game he put on the park.<\/p>\n

Playing alongside Andre Esterhuizen<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rare you get to play with someone, especially in a club team, that is that good,\u201d Care<\/a> says. \u201cI\u2019d played with big lads before, but I hadn\u2019t played with lads that massive wanting to run people over.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday this week Esterhuizen<\/a>, all 6\u20194, 18 stone of him, was handed the Springbok captaincy by Rassie Erasmus; only the 68th man to have that honour bestowed upon them.<\/p>\n

The player who initially thought he\u2019d made a mistake coming to England to reboot his career during the pandemic, will lead South Africa on Saturday in a one-off Test against Australia in Perth.<\/p>\n

It caps a remarkable five-year period in which Andre \u2018The Giant\u2019 has gone from powering Quins to Gallagher Prem glory and picking up the league\u2019s Players\u2019 Player of the Year award, to becoming the most renowned hybrid player in the game.<\/p>\n

Why Rassie Erasmus snubbed Eben Etzebeth and Handre Pollard for Springboks captaincy: \u2018We are trying to build our leadership group\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Although he will wear the No.12 jersey on the weekend, it is as a forward in Erasmus\u2019 Bomb Squad, that he has proved his worth to the world\u2019s best team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought there had to be a place for him somewhere in the South Africa team because he\u2019s easily in the top three of best players I played with,\u201d Care tells Planet Rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t realise the brilliance of the man until you play with him and see what he can do to people, the damage he can cause. And the impact that has on your team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a year or two in the Prem where people couldn\u2019t tackle him, people literally couldn\u2019t defend him. From our first game together, I thought: This guy\u2019s proper\u2019. It\u2019s frightening how good he has become.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks team: Winners and losers as Rassie Erasmus rewards \u2018egoless\u2019\u00a0warrior and the \u2018unluckiest\u2019 snub<\/a><\/p>\n

Wanting to leave England<\/p>\n

Erasmus says the armband is a fitting reward for a player who has \u201cbrought so much to our squad on and off the field. We trust that he is the right man to take over the captaincy in this match.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Esterhuizen who arrived in London just before lockdown was less sure of himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter six months here I actually wanted to go back,\u201d he told me in a 2024 Planet Rugby interview.<\/a> \u201cAs soon as we got here we were basically straight into lockdown for almost a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t really go out, couldn\u2019t mingle, couldn\u2019t go see places. We were in a new country, trying to get settled in and we just had to sit indoors. Yeah, that was quite tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe (then-pregnant wife M\u00e1bea and baby son Liam) moved into a house and had no furniture or anything. We could only order stuff online. Personally, I really struggled, particularly when winter hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost said I want to use my release clause, which was in my contract at the end of the first year. I had to fight that feeling, tell myself I hadn\u2019t really given it a chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I had a long talk about it and eventually we said, \u2018Okay, we have come this far, we need to give it a proper shot\u2019. It was a big decision. Luckily we chose to stay because so much good happened off the back of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Steve Hansen: Rassie Erasmus needs to have \u2018honest conversations\u2019 with ageing Springboks<\/a><\/p>\n

He never wanted to play in the forwards<\/p>\n

Care remembers the time at Quins post-Covid as fondly as any period in his career and says his wrecking ball team mate is a big reason for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you could carve out and sculpt the perfect 12, Andre would be that player,\u201d considers the TNT Sports pundit. Perhaps that is why the Londoners did not consider using him as a forward.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never even wanted to go near the forwards,\u201d Louis Lynagh, Quins\u2019 2021 Prem Final match-winner testifies. \u201cHe always talked about how his first position was fullback.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he was was a godsend to Marcus [Smith], who feeds off a bit of space with defenders biting in. Defences had to put at least two or three people on Andre.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sets foot in any team in the world and makes it better. So am I surprised he\u2019s been so successful with the Springboks? Not at all. Put him in a team like that and it elevates not only him but the players around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every match of the 2026\/27 Gallagher PREM is live on TNT Sports and HBO Max, kicking off this Friday with Northampton Saints vs Newcastle Red Bulls from 7pm on TNT Sports 1.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Springboks: Rassie Erasmus reveals Malcolm Marx experiment that could debut versus Australia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time Andre Esterhuizen played for Harlequins a thought struck Danny Care. \u201cThis guy,\u201d mused the England…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[57076,64,63,197318,1208,39991,818,1182,44,760,1183,85],"class_list":["post-902543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-andre-esterhuizen","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-danny-care","tag-england","tag-harlequins","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}