South Africa’s November tour ended like much of it proceeded, with a red card being the dominating narrative. Only this time there was no defence, no room for excuses. Eben Etzebeth’s eye-gouging of a Welsh opponent was as heinous an act as you can get on a rugby field.
I doubt anyone who has seen the incident involving Alex Mann will question why I so quickly label it an eye-gouging, for that was clearly what it was. It was as blatant as such things can be.
There will be some Bok fans who will look for wiggle room for their hero. That is natural. Two decades ago there were many who did the same for the disgraced Proteas cricket captain Hansie Cronjé. No ways, they said, did he collude with bookmakers. But Hansie admitted it himself.
There will be those who will say we need to look at what sparked that incident before we condemn him. Yes, there does have to be a thorough investigation of the brawl that broke out less than two minutes from the end of the game. But in this instance what sparked Etzebeth shouldn’t have much sway, for nothing can justify that reaction.
Thirty-one years ago I was in Wellington when Bok prop Johan le Roux took a nibble on the then All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick’s ear. Goodness knows what Fitzpatrick might have said or done to Le Roux, for Fitzpatrick was a player who played close to the line. But there was no mitigation. Le Roux was banned for rugby for 19 months.
Yes, 19 months. Which is something to think about for those who might feel the most capped Bok was finding a way to take enforced leave and get the summer off. “No need to rely on headaches as an excuse to take time off from playing for the Sharks this summer,” said someone who remembered the reason why Etzebeth missed so much of the last United Rugby Championship season.
I heard from two separate sources, one a fellow journalist who was messaged by him and another an investor in the Sharks, that Marco Masotti, effectively the owner of the Durban franchise, was apoplectic after watching one of his most highly paid players red carded. And he has every right to be. The Sharks pay the bulk of Etzebeth’s salary. Yet they hardly ever see him play, and now they are unlikely to see him for the rest of the season.
But the sanction for an eye-gouging incident could mean Etzebeth is out for more than just the rest of the Sharks’ campaign. Like Le Roux’s, this is an offence that could see him off the field for much longer than weeks or months. It could be a year. It has happened to European players who have been found guilty of eye-gouging. Which would mean he misses the next international season too.
So you’d have to scoff at any suggestion, serious or otherwise, that his action might have been a deliberate attempt to get off the ridiculous 12-month treadmill South African players are on. Make no mistake, if there are players who feel they need time off, they do have my sympathy.
But that cues what should really be the source of Masotti’s anger: there was no other reason other than pure greed, chasing money, that the meaningless game against Wales was played. There’s an international window for a reason. In The Times (UK), Steve James wrote that it was a facile Bok win, and he was right.
Those who puffed their chests and claimed it was a statement win clearly didn’t know just how weak that Wales team was. An already weak team — they’ve won only against Japan since the most recent World Cup — was further weakened by 13 players being ruled out because the game was played outside the international window.
The Boks made their statement against France and Ireland. Not against Wales. You don’t make statements against a gathering of lambs waiting for the slaughter. And slaughtered they were, which makes Etzebeth’s act all the more ridiculous. His team was leading 73-0 and time was up, for goodness’ sake.
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