South Africa have been working with Esterhuizen, known as ‘Andre the Giant’ for his huge frame, to play as a forward or back, and that paid off on Saturday.
He replaced captain Siya Kolisi at halftime and was able to play among the forwards or backs depending on the situation, lessoning the blow of the Springboks being reduced to 14 players.
“What started out as a little bit of an experiment with Andre trying to get him to play loose forward and inside centre, has become a bit of a weapon for us,” Brown told reporters on Monday.
“And probably getting the red card and having Andre on the bench, I don’t know if we could’ve asked for a better impact player who in that situation could go to the mauls, go to the scrums and then defend at inside centre when France had the ball.
“He’s getting better and better as we get through the Test match year.”
It is a win-win for player and team, with Esterhuizen finding capos hard to come by as a centre alone with so much competition in the squad, but his versatility now makes him one of the first names in the squad.
Brown thinks it is something that will become more common in rugby in the years to come.
“I think a lot of countries have players who can jump between forwards and backs,” he said. “Ardie Savea for the All Blacks could easily play in the backs, and there’s definitely a couple of French guys that have played in the backs who are now loose forwards.
“The versatility that Andre provides is huge for us and for sure some other countries will be adding a player to their squad with similar attributes.”
The Springboks now head to Turin to face Italy on Saturday, with their hosts reveling in a 26-19 victory over Australia at the weekend.
"Italy were outstanding against Australia, they’ve got massive threats at the breakdown and they’re just so dangerous when they get space and opportunity,” Brown said.
“We certainly won’t be taking them lightly and we’ll be putting out the best team possible that’ll be able to face them and we’ll prepare accordingly.”
