{"id":173715,"date":"2025-12-08T13:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T13:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/173715\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T13:53:08","slug":"experienced-commentator-weighs-in-on-eben-etzebeths-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/173715\/","title":{"rendered":"Experienced commentator weighs in on Eben Etzebeth’s verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It might have been over a week ago now, but the Eben Etzebeth<\/a> eye-gouge continues to make headlines around the world, after the length of his ban was announced late last week, with the experienced lock missing 12 weeks of action.<\/p>\n

The incident, with Wales\u2019 Alex Mann<\/a>, was in the dying stages of the Springboks\u2019 73-0 victory in Cardiff, moments after Etzebeth went over for one of their final tries of their convincing victory.<\/p>\n

All Blacks<\/a> vice-captain Ardie Savea<\/a> was a character reference for the Springboks lock, which the disciplinary committee commented on in their explanation for the ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also gave appropriate weight to the character testimonial from Ardie Savea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experienced New Zealand<\/a> Rugby commentator Tony Johnson, who was on the end-of-year tour for the All Blacks, questions the length of Etzebeth\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n

Johnson is of the belief that because the offence was done at International level, his suspension should be for International fixtures, not club rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat 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\u2019s eye socket. He\u2019s not going to miss a beat of international stuff,\u201d Johnson said on Sport Nation Morning\u2019s with Ian Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe break will probably bring him back even fitter and meaner for next year. Is there 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

As mentioned previously, the 141-Test Springbok received a kind reference from Savea, something which Johnson believes is a bit weird considering all of their battles over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to close on a point that you made, did anyone else think it was just a little bizarre that he got a character reference from Ardie Savea? Yeah, Ardie\u2019s earned the right to do whatever he wants, but I know if someone poked me in the eye like that, I\u2019m not sure how kindly I\u2019d take to someone singing their virtues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Sky Sport commentator turned Radio broadcaster Ian Smith<\/a>, agrees with Johnson, saying that it is a very weak punishment for such an offence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m with you on that, that is a very weak punishment. When you consider how it can be served, very, very weak punishment, you commit an offence like that, an open offence, which is one of the most heinous you can do by possibly take a guy\u2019s eyesight away from him in that situation. That should be dealt with at the highest, most open level as well,\u201d Smith said on\u00a0Sport Nation NZ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It might have been over a week ago now, but the Eben Etzebeth eye-gouge continues to make headlines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-173715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}