SPRINGBOKS LOCK EBEN Etzebeth says he was targeted by the Irish media after he accused Ireland’s players of making arrogant comments following the two sides’ clash at the World Cup last year.
Ireland beat the Springboks 13-8 in Paris and Etzebeth claimed to have been taken aback by around 12 of the Irish players telling him they would see the South Africans in the final.
“You shake the guy’s hands and probably 12 out of the 23 when I shook the hands told me, ‘See you guys in the final,’” said Etzebeth on the Rugby Pod in May.
“Because the way the logs worked out we were going to play France and they were going to play New Zealand and my immediate thought was, ‘Are these guys seriously not even thinking about the All Blacks in the World Cup quarter-final playing against them?’
“So that remark they made, ‘See you guys in the final’, I was just like these guys are making a big mistake to look past probably one of the most dominant teams, or probably the most dominant team in the last 20 to 30 years of Test rugby.
“It’s good to be confident but you can never be arrogant in this game because that’s the thing about rugby, you can have the best season and you can have one slip-up, or one missed tackle, and a guy puts you on your arse. That is the beauty of this game – you are never on top forever.”
Speaking today in Pretoria, the Springboks lock essentially doubled down on what he had said about the Irish players, while revealing he had felt some heat from the Irish media in the wake of those comments.
“Yeah, the Irish media definitely targeted me after that incident,” said Etzebeth.
“Look, I said what I said. It was after the game and I see a lot of them [in the media] said how could I count exactly that amount? You just give an estimate because it was definitely not less than six or seven, it wasn’t more than 20 of them. I just gave an estimate.
“I said what I said. We’ll never after a game tell a team ‘we’ll see you in the final’ if there’s so much rugby still to be played. Maybe that was their way to say they think we’re a good side and we might make it all the way through, but people definitely interpreted that a bit wrong and took it a bit out of context.”
Etzebeth and the Boks are hoping to change their fortunes against Ireland this weekend.
They have lost their last three games against the Irish, although none of those have been on South African soil.
“They’re a world-class team, they are good at their structures,” said Etzebeth. “They know what they want out of a game. The last few games haven’t gone our way so we’re excited for this challenge, two Test matches in South Africa.
“We haven’t played them in South Africa for the last eight years, so it’s going to be a nice challenge to face them here. I’m sure there’s going to be a few thousand Irish fans coming down as well, so it’s going to be a great match.”
