Etzebeth is a Bok breath of fresh air

It is so refreshing that if one rugby hero – or icon – isn’t available any longer, we settle for the next best. Now one would never imagine that Eben Etzebeth would ever settle for second best, but the way he has settled into the Springbok captaincy role has been smooth.

And now we are talking of a man who many believed had too much of a short fuse to ever set an example to young boys let alone being the leader of the national team.

But the way he has taken over from the injured Warren Whiteley has been very refreshing and this is after Whiteley was credited with establishing the new-found “brotherhood and sound culture” in the national team.

And maybe “Wazza” was instrumental in showing Etzebeth the way forward.

And while Etzebeth is probably not as smooth a talker as Whiteley, it’s this new-found culture of the Boks that’s rubbing off on the big Bok and he should deserve some credit for the way he had grown in the leadership role.

Etzebeth himself said after flanker Siya Kolisi scored the third Bok try last weekend he was happy for Kolisi – being a longtime team-member at the Stormers, but it was more than just that.

“It’s always nice to see Siya score, but when anybody scores we are all happy. You can see how the players run to the scorer to be happy together,” was how Etzebeth summed up the situation.

“It’s just the culture we have in the team and we enjoy playing with each other.”

Etzebeth said he had to congratulate the management team of national coach Allister Coetzee and assistant coaches Franco Smith and Brendan Venter for the way they have united the squad.

We have heard how the pre-season camps in Plettenberg Bay – and more especially the two weeks in Port Elizabeth – have bonded the team members ahead of the opening Rugby Championship encounter.

Even Argentine head coach Daniel Harcoude expressed his opinion that he had witnessed how the Boks had reached a newly-found momentum, energy and intensity to rise above last year’s turmoil.

Etzebeth credited the associate leadership core of prop Beast Mtawarira, flyhalf Elton Jantjies, Kolisi and Jaco Kriel as well as the earlier groundwork laid by Whiteley as instrumental to the Bok success story.

But essentially the away fixtures in Salta, Perth and Albany will provide the ultimate answers.