Springboks: Eben Etzebeth’s former team-mates’ blunt verdict on his ‘unbelievable’ achievement

Eben Etzebeth’s former team-mates at the Stormers, Gio Aplon and Juan de Jongh, have revealed that they are not surprised that he has become South Africa’s most capped Test player of all time.

Etzebeth is a Springboks legend having won back-to-back Rugby World Cups and he became South Africa’s most capped Test player when he helped the Boks to victory in their Rugby Championship decider against Argentina in Mbombela recently.

He has now made 128 appearances in the international arena for the Boks and surpassed the previous record which was held by another legendary Springboks lock, Victor Matfield, who set the mark over two stints.

Etzebeth made his Stormers debut as a 20-year-old in 2012 and came into the then Super Rugby franchise’s run-on side with Springboks backline duo De Jongh and Aplon among the men from the Cape’s established stars.

‘He was always pushing his boundaries’

Speaking on his Behind the Ruck podcast, De Jongh was asked by fellow podcaster and ex-Springboks scrum-half Rudy Paige if he could see Etzebeth becoming the most capped Springbok when he broke into the Stormers team as a youngster and replied: “From the get-go. I mean, ever since he got to the Stormers, he had Andries Beker and a lot of senior players at the time, but he was always pushing his boundaries by putting pressure onto Springboks at the time.

“And he was a professional ever since he got there.

“He went to the Western Province Rugby Academy at the time. And for him, Siya (Kolisi) and Frans (Malherbe) who were there at the time, they kind of learned a lot that they took into the professional set-up.

“And I must say, for me, it was just great to see how far he has come, how hard he’s worked. And the consistency, ever since being a 19-year-old, the consistency now is something that’s beautiful to see.”

Aplon echoed De Jongh’s sentiments and highlighted the significance of Etzebeth’s achievement of becoming his country’s highest capped Test player.

“You also need to understand how remarkable the magnitude of playing 128 Tests is,” he said. “You need to survive a couple of coaches.

“Because if you look at a Springbok Test schedule a year, it’s about 12 Tests. So you need to play, if you play, if you don’t miss a single Test, that’s four years, that’s a cycle of a coach. Then you’re on 48 (caps).

“Then you need to play another cycle of another coach. That’s, what’s that? 48, yeah. That’s 96.

“Then you have to play another, almost another cycle. So you have to play 12 years kind of for the Springboks.”

Aplon said what made Etzebeth a special player is that he won’t rest on his laurels now that he has reached the milestone in his career.

‘He’s consistently improving’

“If you look at Eben now, he’s not that guy that’s in the team because he’s got experience. He’s consistently improving. He’s challenging the other team,” he said.

“He’s playing high class rugby at 128 Tests. It’s unbelievable. It’s impressive.

“Like Juan said, he’s been like that from the start. You could see he had a hunger to do well. He was mentally, he outplayed Rynhardt Elstadt, who was, I think everybody in South Africa was scared of that guy at that time.

“And he outplayed him when he got there. He had some great mentors, but I mean, we need to give credit to Eben. I think, yes, I’m always a Bryan Habana fan and I always say Bryan Habana is my best modern day Springbok, but yes, Eben is close.”