NEARLY EVERYONE AGREES that France had the best player in the world in their team last weekend at Stade de France.
Antoine Dupont made an incredible recovery from his fractured cheekbone to start and he was, once again, out of this world. Some of his ingenuity was jaw-dropping. Time and time again, he created opportunities for les Bleus.
He had a huge 95 touches of the ball and nearly every one of them was of high quality.
Dupont did get caught once and the man who snaffled him should very much be in the discussion for best player in the world. Tight forwards don’t tend to get as many headlines as the backs but they’re arguably even more important in deciding games.
And on the big occasion, Springboks lock Eben Etzebeth was on another level. Even in a game featuring many of the world’s best forwards, the 31-year-old was a cut above. He is surely the best lock in the game.
He spent 10 minutes in the sin bin for an accidental head-on-head tackle on Uini Atonio but Etzebeth packed more into his 70 minutes than some players manage in two or three games.
He was literally everywhere. Etzebeth is one of the best kick chasers in the game and there he was hounding after kicks with as much energy as ever. It was his competition that ensured Gaël Fickou couldn’t gather the ball for the Boks’ first try. It went loose and Kurt-Lee Arendse streaked away to score.
Etzebeth never let up on that front. His ability to cover ground at high speed is astonishing. He’s worth doing a ‘player cam’ on if you get to see him live. Just watch how the 6ft 8ins, 120kg giant eats up the metres when the Boks are scrambling in defence. Invariably, he gets back onside to make an important tackle or shut down opportunities for the opposition.
That’s what he did early in the game when the French nearly scored a second try. With an overlap outside him in the left corner, Etzebeth got one of his huge paws to the ball and cleverly tried to bat it backward. Some people feel it was a knock-on but the referee, who was directly in line, and the TMO, who has multi-angle replays, both felt it was good.
Etzebeth saved a certain try. It was his intervention on Dupont on the fringe of a ruck that led to Cheslin Kolbe’s turnover score in the first half. Dupont, as he tends to do, scooped the ball from the base and took a couple of steps before trying to pass. The issue was that Etzebeth was already on top of him, having burst forward with brilliant timing.
Etzebeth disrupted Dupont’s pass, it went to ground, Cyril Baille shoveled it on, and the Boks reacted superbly to score. Dupont insisted that Etzebeth’s hand had made contact with the ball for knock-on, but again the officials felt otherwise. It was a huge play from Etzebeth, who is excellent at timing his thunderous charges up off the defensive line.
He can even jackal at the defensive breakdown, as he did in the 79th minute of last weekend’s game, pouncing for a steal as the French threatened to grab a late, late win.
His try was an immense moment. The Boks used a clever tap penalty play from close-range and teed the imposing lock up for a one-on-one against French out-half Matthieu Jalibert, who made the understandable mistake of trying to take Etzebeth up high. The Boks lock just powered through him for a crucial try.
Etzebeth is no donkey. Witness his sublime catch-pass down the left-hand side under pressure in the second half. He has fine skills to go along with his athleticism.
He is very much an enforcer of a tighthead lock, bringing massive power and endurance in the scrum behind the Boks tighthead props, as well as at maul time. He’s also superb at latching onto ball-carriers and providing the extra ballast needed to get over the gainline or the tryline. But Etzebeth has much more to his game.
He’s no passenger at the lineout, where he is one of the best defensive jumpers around at the front and he is an excellent jumper in attack too, even if he didn’t get to show that last weekend on a night when the South Africans had just five throws into the lineout. Etzebeth doesn’t call lineouts but he’s clearly a smart operator.
Etzebeth won his 100th Springboks cap last year. He only turns 32 the day after the World Cup final, so there is plenty of rugby still left ahead of him.
Having already won a World Cup in 2019, he is certainly one of the greatest Boks ever and is arguably their best lock ever, even in a competitive field featuring the likes of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha.
Along with all the stuff he does on the pitch, Etzebeth is also a key man off it, as Springboks out-half Handré Pollard revealed. Pollard certainly sees Etzebeth as one of the best Boks of all time.
“He’s right up there,” said Pollard yesterday as they prepare for this weekend’s semi-final against England.
“We’ve had some unbelievable locks in the past. I had the privilege of playing with Bakkies and Victor towards the end of their careers.
“But Eben is special. He’s such a big part of our squad. Yes, he’s massive for us as a player but I think what he does off the field, sometimes people don’t always realise. His leadership, his calmness, he’s actually a very, very chilled guy, which you wouldn’t see.
“He’s very, very calm. I think that rubs off on all of us, especially the younger guys. Seeing his calmness, it’s very important to us. His experience is invaluable and it’s definitely something we have to draw on this Saturday.”
If England are going to pull it off this weekend, Etzebeth will take some stopping.