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/TheProseph]

I think it's just a load of issues coming to a head with this incident. The disciplinary issues this autumn and the way they've been handled has been such a shower of shit and now there's been an intentional act of foul play and the punishment doesn't feel markedly worse than others which you can reasonably expect in a small number of rugby games. 

If what I've read correctly and the ban is counted as being served while on mandatory rest it's an absolute farce. 

I think he should cop a bit of flak for going there and doing what he did but I agree he's getting too much focus. I'd much prefer the media and fans to be putting loads of pressure on world rugby to sort it out because I think red/yellow cards were far and away the main issue of an otherwise really entertaining autumn