For me Etzebeth was the best Springbok lo/ck ever but in past year Etzebeth was more injureed than he played and I am not surprised that Erasmus expressed misgivingts about poblems as to the lock situation in SA.
For about 5 months in 2025 Etzebeth could not play die to conciussion problems and now the S harks announced he is outg of rugby for an indefinite period with a hip injury. I am su ,re he wuld not be in the RWC squad in 2027.
Most cap bok of all time and great servant, but time to move on. The Saarks got no value from him and every club he played at moaned about his lack of commitment at club level.
We still have a quality lock like him so maybe we need stop trying to find a clone and work with what we have.
Built towards their strengths and change the way we see locks.
Not great that RG is out with an ACL. That is another 9 months on the sidelines.
Mostert is aging
Moerat is injury prone and kak.
Only leave a handful of green locks like vermaak.
We need to get JJ some caps
Without dominant locks our perceived intimidation factor will be tested. Etzebeth has been there for every big Bok win….a once in a lifetime strong man who is also an athlete. Snyman is another physical specimen with perhaps the best forward offload in the game.
To say they will be missed is an understatement
His try after coming back from a yellow against France in the WC might just be one of my favourites of all time. For me, it was whole career summed up in 6 seconds.
Others that are up there...
Kolbe embarrassing Farrell to put the final beyond Englands reach in 2019.
Also in 2019, the long range maul try that Faf and Marx finished off against Japan. But that one is less about the actual try and more about how the Japanese fans responded and appreciated it. I'll stop myself from ranting about how much I bloody admire the Japs. Just know, it's a lot.
Don't worry, Moz...Venter has arrived just on time ;)
Agreed but if we had the locks, he would be my pick at 7.