Etzebeth not guilty, ready for England by Gavin Rich 20 November 2012, 22:39
The Springboks received the news they wanted to on Tuesday night as Eben Etzebeth was found not guilty of any wrong-doing in last weekend’s test against Scotland in Edinburgh.
After a marathon disciplinary hearing, the Etzebeth defence of alleged eye-gouging at Murrayfield was successful, and he will be part of the Bok pack that tackles England at Twickenham on Saturday.
Etzebeth was cited by English independent citing officer Alan Mansel for an incident in the Murrayfield test which he interpreted as an attempt to attack Scotland flyhalf Greig Laidlaw’s eyes but which the Scotland player himself, and the Scotland management, did not believe was driven by any malicious intent.
The not guilty verdict delivered late on Tuesday night surely calls into question the wisdom of having officials who hail from countries that a team is going to play next on tour acting as citing commissioners.
Few who saw the incident replayed on video or on the field ever doubted that Etzebeth would be cleared, and it would be understandable if the Boks went onto the field at Twickenham on Saturday motivated by their anger at the perceived intent behind the citing.
Etzebeth did not train on Tuesday so the citing did succeed in disrupting the Boks' build-up.
There were further disruptions on Tuesday, and even with Etzebeth being cleared it still looks like the Boks might be facing an uphill struggle in the final test match of 2012, a game which coach Heyneke Meyer has admitted could be the defining one of the first year of his tenure.
Only Andries Strauss and Juandre Kruger of the anticipated starting tight five for Twickenham sat out the training session at the Latymer School in the White City suburb of London, with Jannie du Plessis being managed after a long year and the Bok management waiting on loosehead Gurthro Steenkamp.
The former Bulls prop pulled up in training on Monday and his condition has posed enough concern to coach Meyer for him to call for JC van Rensburg to fly from South Africa to provide cover.
Beast Mtawarira, the first-choice loosehead, had already flown home, and on Tuesday night CJ van der Linde followed him after being ruled out with the hamstring injury he picked up at training on Monday.
Should Steenkamp not be cleared to play, Heinke van der Merwe, who played well when he came on as a replacement in the first tour match against Ireland in Dublin, will be wearing the No 1.
But in reality it may not be a good idea to read too much into who trained and who didn’t on Tuesday. The Boks are battered and bruised after a long year and Meyer has already said he intends managing the players through the week.
Jean de Villiers for instance hardly trained last week because of flu and yet still played against Scotland, and it was a similar story with Du Plessis.
The bad news is that JP Pietersen still took no part in training on Tuesday and is starting to look an unlikely starter for Twickenham.
Lwazi Mvovo, who did run on Tuesday, is the likely replacement on the right wing. The Bok team is to be announced at noon SA time on Wednesday.
