{"id":317374,"date":"2025-11-29T22:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317374\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T22:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:49:10","slug":"bok-great-bryan-habana-condemns-etzebeths-act-but-defends-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317374\/","title":{"rendered":"Bok great Bryan Habana condemns Etzebeth&#8217;s act but defends player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Springboks finished their 2025 season with a resounding 73-0 win over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/wales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wales<\/a> but a 78th minute incident with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/eben-etzebeth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eben Etzebeth<\/a> overshadowed the dominant victory.<\/p>\n<p>The Test centurion came into the game off the bench and was involved in a scuffle which saw the lock red carded for eye gouging after a review of the footage from the TMO.<\/p>\n<p>Ex-Bok and legendary winger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/bryan-habana\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bryan Habana<\/a> weighed in on the incident, condemning Etzebeth\u2019s actions on a post on X. Habana predicted his former team mate would spend a lengthy amount of time. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760269811_297_spacer-new.png\" alt=\"Video Spacer\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Erasmus reacts to Etzebeth\u2019s red card<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760269811_297_spacer-new.png\" alt=\"Video Spacer\" width=\"100%\"\/>Erasmus reacts to Etzebeth\u2019s red card<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve just seen the Springboks score line but more so the incident with Eben\u2026 as great a player and person as he is, there\u2019s no room for that in the game\u2026 Justified red card and should be facing a lengthy time on the sidelines\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Also.. I\u2019ve just seen the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Springboks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Springboks<\/a> score line but more so the incident with Eben\u2026 as great a player and person as he is, there\u2019s no room for that in the game\u2026 Justified red card and should be facing a lengthy time on the sidelines\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bryan Habana (@BryanHabana) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BryanHabana\/status\/1994855863476261369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The incident was met with widespread condemnation from fans and players alike. After heated debate with fans, Habana defended Etzebeth as a player, arguing this doesn\u2019t detract from his standing within the game. <\/p>\n<p>One fan said \u201cThat act demands a reassessment of any perceived greatness. Always been worried about Eben\u2019s self-control when that red mist descends. And now he has this permanent, glaring stain on his record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI disagree with you about a reassessment of any perceived greatness,\u201d Habana responded. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has not only been the ultimate professional, hardest worker and team man but he has become SA\u2019s most capped player because of how great he is\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMultiple SA rugby player of the year awards. He should have, in my opinion won a World Player of the year award. Two rugby World Cups behind his name.. The youngest player to reach 100 caps\u2026 1 incident, as bad as it is, should not take away how influential a player he is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/rassie-erasmus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rassie Erasmus<\/a> was blunt about the incident, saying the \u201coptics weren\u2019t great\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what I can say that isn\u2019t controversial. It didn\u2019t look good,\u201d he told media. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a justified red card. It\u2019s definitely not the way we\u2019d have liked to have ended the game. The optics weren\u2019t great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Springboks finished their 2025 season with a resounding 73-0 win over Wales but a 78th minute incident&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-317374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}