Eben Etzebeth’s barnstorming performances for Toulon have won over club president Bernard Lemaître, who has walked back earlier criticism of the Springbok enforcer.
In January, Lemaître said Etzebeth and Toulon teammate Facundo Isa were injured or away on national duty more than they played for the club and demanded that World Rugby implements a law that “prevents foreign countries from coming to the Top 14 supermarket to take the players they need for their selection” or that national unions at least pay compensation to have their Test players released.
Etzebeth has been a mainstay for the French giants since February, scoring a try and starting 10 successive matches – the most recent a semi-final victory over Saracens en route to the European Challenge Cup final against Lyon on 27 May.
In a wide-ranging interview with French newspaper Midi Olympique, Lemaître expressed his delight with Etzebeth’s performances and explained away his criticism of the 97-capped Bok lock in January.
READ: Toulon president blasts ‘handicap’ Etzebeth
Lemaître said: “It’s a magic trick … no, more seriously, there are a lot of objective factors in this return to the fore. In reality, there was above all a misunderstanding when I indicated that the situation of Eben Etzebeth or Facundo Isa was a handicap for clubs like ours because these guys play five months out of 12. I was talking about their situation, not about the quality of the men.
“We will be very careful,” he added about recruiting South Africans and Argentinians in the future. “If we recruit them, they will be very high-level players with a winning mindset. This state of mind, Eben Etzebeth has it. He can’t stand being dominated and, in fact, showed it to Maro Itoje the other day.”
In February, Etzebeth made headlines when he locked horns in the media with former SA enforcer Bakkies Botha, who said he was disappointed that his Bok successor had failed to live up to his reputation while at Toulon, the club Botha represented between 2011 and 2015.
Etzebeth, who will be joining the Sharks in Durban next season, said in a video interview with RugbyPass that Botha and he have moved past the spat.
