{"id":177730,"date":"2025-12-10T19:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/177730\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:32:10","slug":"eben-etzebeth-speaks-out-with-404-word-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/177730\/","title":{"rendered":"Eben Etzebeth speaks out with 404-word message"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa<\/a> lock has taken to social media to \u201cowe everyone an explanation\u201d after receiving a 12-week ban for gouging. <\/p>\n

The 34-year-old was slapped with the ban last week for gouging Wales<\/a> flanker Alex Mann<\/a> during a scuffle in the final minutes of South Africa\u2019s 73-0 at the Principality Stadium in November. <\/p>\n

Etzebeth received the first red card of his career for the incident, and accepted that he was guilty in a post on Instagram, but provided some context to the incident in a 404-word message. <\/p>\n

In the post, the double World Cup winner explained how he did not intend to make contact with the eyes of Mann, but the dynamics of the brawl resulted in the red card incident. <\/p>\n

Though he provided some context, Etzebeth said he deserves the suspension, and vowed he will not be red carded again. <\/p>\n

\"Team Match Summary \"Team <\/p>\n

\u201cHey Everyone,\u201d he wrote on Instagram. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been quiet, but now that my hearing is done I think I owe everyone an explanation<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, this is not a post to show that I was not guilty, I accept guilt. I made a mistake and I\u2019m willing to serve a suspension which I deserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want young kids who look up to the Springboks to think that it\u2019s OK to eye gouge someone, because it\u2019s not, but unfortunately mistakes happen and I made a big one for which I\u2019m sorry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019d like to answer the question \u2013 why did you do such a thing?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mistake caused by my reaction and other factors that played a role.<\/p>\n

Slide 1: The scuffle was basically over when Wales #7 struck me with an open hand to my chin\/neck area, you can see me looking at the Assistant Referee and waiting for a reaction from him (it happened fast and it\u2019s understandable that he didn\u2019t see it) without reacting yet, I got another pull on my jersey, before I go in with the similar type of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlide 2: You can clearly see my first point of contact is against his shoulder with an open hand, just like he did, except he got me on the chin. Another thing worth mentioning, when he struck me, I was standing still with not a lot of movement or players trying to get involved. When I went for the same open hand towards his shoulder, you\u2019ll see 2 Welsh players changing the dynamic of the entire picture as well as one of my teammates pulling Wales #7 around his neck away from my hand and where my force is going.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlide 3: Another Camera Angle<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why did I post this? To try and show people how everything happened and that it was never intentional. I would never do something like this on purpose, I know what the consequences will be after playing rugby for a few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to everyone that stood by me and thought the best of me. I\u2019m sorry for letting you and the game down. That was my first red card since I started playing. I want it to be my last.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the people that were angry and upset with my actions, I understand \u2013 because it didn\u2019t look good on the slow motion replay and hopefully you\u2019ve got a bit more context now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa lock has taken to social media to \u201cowe everyone an explanation\u201d after receiving a 12-week ban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-177730","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\/177730","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=177730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}