The Springbok camp was on Wednesday rukked with the news that captain Eben Etzebeth’s dad died while his son was gearing up to lead South Africa against the All Blacks in New Zealand on Saturday.
According to reports from the Land of the Long White Cloud, stand-in captain Etzebeth is yet to decide whether he will return home or lead the Boks into battle against their archrivals in their Rugby Championship clash on Saturday.
Etzebeth was quoted in 2020 by Rapport after being allowed to return to South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic by his then-club Toulon as saying: “It’s important for me to be with family.
“I look after my family… my dad’s health is also not the best – he was diagnosed with cancer about three years ago and survived…”
Centre Lukhanyo Am, who will be one of the leaders on the day regardless of whether Etzebeth plays or not, is convinced the team will adapt to any changes.
Am is one of a handful of players who started last week’s 43-12 trashing of Australia at Loftus Versfeld, with the Bok management making 10 changes to that team for the match in Auckland.
Am, though, is ready to step up again and says of the changes: “We had enough time to gel and prepare as much as we could…
“I just hope we will be able to take the momentum from the Wallabies game into this game. There are certain places we feel we could have done better, but it will be a different challenge this week.
“We all know our strengths and will focus more on that – our set piece work and forwards and backs just trying to capitalise on that.”
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