The real facts on Etzebeth's discipline from Rob Houwig

'It may surprise you, in fact, to learn just how many times he has been either yellow- or red-carded in a 49-match Super Rugby career for the Stormers spanning five seasons to now from 2012 (he sat out all of the 2014 campaign injured) ... if the annals I have trawled are accurate, not once. . And if you flip over into his international career, a 54-Test tenure to this point has seen him yellow-carded on a solitary occasion - against Australia at Brisbane last year (also his 50th cap) - and even then it was for the less-than-scandalous offence of not rolling away; he may well have been a fall guy with the Boks on a warning at the time for repeat penalties. . There was also a semblance of controversy and arguably injustice when, in his maiden Test season in 2012, he was cited after another Wallaby encounter for an “attempted” headbutt - sounds a bit like being half-killed? - on Nathan Sharpe and suspended for a fortnight. . One stint in the sin bin for the Boks from well over 50 Tests hardly suggests a serial problem, when you consider the gallery of disciplinary skulduggery of a predecessor in a No 4 shirt like Bakkies Botha. . Indeed, Etzebeth’s disciplinary integrity thus far, at least as far as international card-brandishing is concerned, stands up surprisingly well against forward compatriots like Schalk Burger (six in 86 Tests and the generally even-tempered Victor Matfield (five in 127). . Let sleeping dogs lie, I say. . And growling dogs....um...growl'

The point I made on the assassinate Etzebeth string ......he doesn't get a lot of cards. But I'm surprised to learn he has never been carded in Super Rugby and his one international yellow was probably more of a team card. . Case closed.

 Indeed Moz. That Sharp incident was a joke.