Eddie Jones believes that Eben Etzebeth’s ban fittingly didn’t include any matches for the Springboks despite arguments that it should.
The Springboks lock was found guilty of intentionally eye-gouging Wales flanker Alex Mann in the final international match of the year, which South Africa won 73-0.
While Etzebeth argued that the action was accidental, the independent disciplinary panel disagreed and handed down a 12-match ban to the second-rower, who will serve out the entirety of the suspension during the Sharks’ Investec Champions Cup and United Rugby Championship campaigns.
Arguments against the ban, including club matches
Sky Sports New Zealand commentator Tony Johnson believes that this shouldn’t be allowed and that sanctions should be applied at the level at which the offence has been committed, a notion that many fans and pundits agree with.
This is largely the case in football, with bans handed down in domestic competitions generally not applying at the international level and vice versa.
“Great player, yes, one of the great, physical, colossal forces in the game. But did he get off lightly, 12 weeks of club rugby for poking his thumb in a bloke’s eye socket? He’s not going to miss a beat of international stuff,” Johnson said on Sport Nation Mornings with broadcaster Ian Smith.
“The break will probably bring him back even fitter and meaner for next year. There is a case here for something as bad as eye gouging that if you do the crime at top level, you do the time at top level.”
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Writing in the Telegraph, England great Brian Moore also weighed in on the debate.
“You can argue that bans should be enforced at the level of rugby in which the offence occurred, but if, hypothetically, Etzebeth does not play for South Africa again for some reason, he would escape with no sanction at all,” he wrote.
“If this had happened in a club game and immediately before a World Cup, Etzebeth would be able to play in rugby’s most important tournament, which would defy ordinary notions of justice.”
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Eddie Jones’ verdict
As for Jones, he says that Etzebeth is being punished at the same level that the incident occurred.
“Well, he’s a professional rugby player, so that’s 100% right. He’s forced to miss professional games,” Jones argued on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“You know, they are not counting games for Durbanville or Hamilton Boys or something like that, which is what we used to try to do – claim that you were going to play for Randwick on Saturday, play for Coogee Bay on Sunday – there are two games gone.”
Fellow former Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie agreed, stating that it ‘has to be in a forum that you would normally play, at least.’
He added: “It’s got to be done at the level that you play at.”