Former Springbok and Sharks lock Mark Andrews is worried about current Bok second rower Eben Etzebeth’s commitment at the breakdown area.
Sport24
While acknowledging that Etzebeth has performed well this season, Andrews feels the 21-year-old isn’t ticking all the boxes a second row forward at the highest level should.
“I would have loved to see Eben Etzebeth play with someone like Bakkies Botha or Victor Matfield,” Andrews told Sports Illustrated Radio on Wednesday.
“He has an incredible talent. The maturity he has been showing in the lineouts has been fantastic and he has a huge amount of confidence in carrying the ball up.
“However, I think that he may be set up by the media, the public and maybe the coaches for a fall later in his career if not sooner in the sense of that he isn’t really doing the job that he should be doing.
“Every single effective pack in world rugby – from international down to club rugby – has one of the second rows who has the ability to bring a physical presence to the game and normally that comes down to ruck time. What’s lacking with the Springboks at the moment is we have quite a few players who think they are ball carriers and Etzebeth has been put in that position at Western Province where he has to be a ball carrier.
“However, I think at the Springboks the situation should be different. It worries me that someone like Willem Alberts is hitting more rucks than anyone else in the team, when he is one of our most effective ball carriers.
“Now we have a guy like Etzebeth standing out a lot of the time waiting to carry the ball up and it has happened a few times already when he’s lost the ball when he’s close to the tryline. I think his role should be to hit rucks and the Springboks need someone like him to own the breakdown. The All Blacks have always believed in owning the breakdown, but at the moment – and I have probably watched him more than most because it’s a position I played in – I don’t see him hitting rucks,” Andrews, who played 77 Tests for the Springboks between 1994 and 2001, said.
The former Sharks enforcer feels Etzebeth has the ability to become world class but needs someone to tell him what is lacking.
“He got away with it in the Currie Cup and in Super Rugby where a very physical Stormers pack has allowed him to play a looser game, but at the Springboks it is going to be critical going forward to have a guy like Etzebeth, who ticks all the boxes, to hit the rucks. He actually runs away from breakdowns instead of running towards them.”
Etzebeth, who won the SARU Young Player of the Year award, will pack down alongside Juandré Kruger when the Boks face Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.
116 @ Pietman:
Piet we would have to get our homebrew kit out if that happened.
114 @ Bullscot:
Just going by the forecast, then you and I know that in Scotland there are a few seasons in one day, or even a hour….. hahaha. Have to wait and see when we start what the weather is like.
@ Puma:
@ Puma:
Viva homebrew, long live!!!!
Faarkim, I will make my own if they continue messing with the wine production down there!
Wife has just touched down in CT, on the phone, talk again in a while…
@ Stormersboy:
Bloody XhosaNostra, they should go back to their homeland, they are just messing up my beautiful place of birth…..farmworkers my arse.
@ Pietman:
Ja. 3rd force and all that.
@ Stormersboy:
Just spoke with mom in Swellendam, old folks are stuck indoors, off-sales burnt down and shops looted overnight, the mob is now moving towards the municipal offices as we speak….
123 @ Pietman:
Yip we could be making homebrew before you know it Piet, lucky you and I have good experience it it…..hahahaha.
Really hope it all gets sorted in the Cape.
@ Pietman:
I read the report on News 24, not great at all. Hope everything is OK.
@ Stormersboy:
See you Cape Boeties?? 😆 Ya well no fine,
Ok so this thread is a bit old, but whilst a lot of people are suddenly criticising Eben’s hard graft rate, lets look at the facts from last week’s game against Ireland.
Most Rucks hit:
1. FLO with 7
2. JDV with 6
3. Eben with 5.
4. Juandre Kruger 4
Adriaan Strauss 4
Zane Kirschner 4
OK so he’s hardly shirking that responsibility.
Lets look at tackle made (missed)
1. FLO 15 (2)
2. Eben 14 (0)
2. Juandre 14 (2)
2. Duanne 14 (1)
So when we look at those, it doesn’t add up to what Mark is saying.
I call Bullshit on the whole thing 🙂
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/match-centre/rugby-union/match-3760102.html?reload=true
130 @ Stormersboy:
Morning bro,
Look not sure how much we can take from stats. I hardly ever look at them. Go check they have Beast playing for 80min as we know he never played in that game. So not so sure about those stats to be honest…. 😉 🙂
Yes they have 24 players on the team sheet.
they obviously have CJ, Beast and Heincke mixed. I can understand how you could confuse them. ??
The point was, the argument is one thing and the stats suggest another, the stats are usually fairly reliable, so they can’t be that far off.
152 @ Stormersboy:
Look there is no disputing that Eben is our best lock and will be for years to come. Probably he could have hit more rucks who knows, I did see him standing back for a few, could be what Mark was talking about. Probably just good advice to make him even a better player than he is.
132 @ Stormersboy:
And Eben could come play for the Sharks any day of the week….. 🙂 Best lock in the country for sure bro. Doubt any are thinking any less of him if he did not hit all the rucks, just good advice from Mark.
Sure, I’m not saying the guy can’t improve. I was reading the original article on Rugby 365 and one of the comments mentioned his stats so I thought I would look them up..
14 tackles, 0 missed is pretty impressive.
Also Duanne is showing his workrate there too. A much tighter player than Spies, doing the hard work though.
135 @ Stormersboy:
If it was between Duanne or Spies it would be Duanne all the time. I personally would like us to have a faster player at 8. If Juan was at blindside no problem with Duanne at 8. Not totally sure if Juan will come back though. Just look how well Sharks done with a fast loose trio and much lighter than the Bok loosies. Sure SR is not Test level but it is almost there. I like a Read type of 8. Remember Mallett saying he would not think about it his 8 would be M. Coetzee. Said he thought Marcell could be a brilliant 8. He has played there, he is fast, has great skills as well. We just could be missing a trick there. I rate Kanko highly as well if he played like he did towards the end of SR. For now Duanne is fine, just very slow, together with Alberts our loose trio is slow.
@ Puma:
Yes I agree with you on the 8, I also prefer a linking more skillful type of player at 8. Duanne is strong like Read but nowhere near as explosive, and then again Coetzee ( who I do rate very highly) is very explosive but to me lacks the ability to punch through gaps up-field the way Alberts does. I think personally that Kanko must be kicking himself at his timing, he would have had 8 or 9 games at 8 for the Boks and we would never have to fear the return of Pierre Spies. He would have been the best available for me.
Coetzee may have been the answer if he’d been given some game time there at SR level, Heynecke will never pick a non specialist at 8, he is too conservative. I do rate Heyneke’s knowledge when it comes to the forwards, he does have a handle on that department. It’s the backs where he doesn’t have a cooking clue.
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