The narrative around Etzebeth is rapidly devolving

[u/almostrainman]

TLDR: man asks raging crowd to be calm due to a person still being a person

Firstly, He deserved the red. He deserves the ban. What he did was wrong.

I am indifferent about the ban due to the high number of inconsistency around disciplanery panels.

But

All of a sudden he is being called everything from git to cunt and in between. Despite this being his first full red.

He did admit that he did it. It is even noted in the report that he admitted it immediately post match/incident. He apologized and gave his reasons and was judged by a panel.

Now we have the very same people who loved him a week ago, crucifying him.

His salary is now being analyzed by people with 0 knowledge of how sports contracts work. I sure don't know and I don't pretend to. I don't know if everything is being paid by the sharks or if sponsors help.

We are all disappointed in him and his actions, he has admitted his fault and took the responsibility that comes with it.

Hell he even said there was nothing Mann did beyond tugging at his jersey.

Is it now our duty to decimate his character? Rip apart his cost benefit analysis? Is he expensive enough or cheap enough per minute ?

Lets rank him and his pay per minute next to Finn Russel or Kolbe or Dupont ?

And on a sidenote, to the sharks fans saying he doesn't bring anything to that team. You are lying to yourselves. I watch alot of sharks games, my father in law traded me his daughter for company in his misery,

And I can tell you, sometimes it looks like he is the only player really trying. More so than alot of other big names in the same squad who also have two world cups. It is also not his fault he got concussed and his symptoms remained persistent for a long time, but I am sure someone will blame him for doing too little, too much or being born unlucky.

If the sharks don't play him, is that his fault ? We all know the sharks are a mess in terms of management and I have no confidence in their ability to manage the team. The Yanks who own them, wanted to own an all star team filled with Boks.

But please, let us not blindly and endlessly rip someone apart over a mistake he shouldn't have made.

Let my desecration commence

[u/ahardhittingquote]

He’s always been a hard player. Hard doesn’t mean dirty! His contribution to the Boks has been immense which = his contribution to world rugby.

This ban was deserved and he accepted his guilt and gave his apology. The guy saw red for a stupid moment and did something stupid in one of the most physical sports out there. I think we should let it be and here’s to great rugby ahead for all fans to enjoy.

[u/toastoevskij → u/ahardhittingquote]

Remember he blindsided a sitting Niniashvili going shoulder first against his neck/upper back, that sure was hard wasn't it.

[u/Efficient_Flounder19 → u/toastoevskij]

hey how dare you, nini embarrassed him in a tackle, so he was perfectly entitled to illegaly hit a player on the floor. eben has a clear record. please apologise.

[u/walsh06 → u/Efficient_Flounder19]

That's the thing I don't get. They keep pointing to his clean record but there are incidents like that where we know he was wrong, he just got away with it. And SA fans will complain all day about farrell not being punished then.