Sir Matt: No excuse for Eben’s act

Former Scotland coach Matt Williams has torn into Eben Etzebeth after the Springbok lock’s 12-match suspension, calling the incident in Cardiff “the pinnacle of the dog act table”.

Writing in his latest Irish Times column, Williams did not hold back as he condemned Etzebeth’s contact with the eye of Wales loose forward Alex Mann, an act that earned the Bok enforcer a full red card and a lengthy ban.

“The action that still sits at the pinnacle of the dog act table is regrettably still with us,” the former Scotland head coach wrote.

“The senselessly violent act of Eben Etzebeth, in attacking the eye of Welsh backrower Alex Mann, did not just break the boundaries of the social contract of what is physically acceptable in our game; it smashed it,” Williams wrote.

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He argued that Etzebeth’s actions had no place in rugby, especially in the dying moments of a Test the Springboks were winning comfortably.

“In Cardiff, in the 78th minute, despite South Africa leading 73-0, Etzebeth broke the game’s law and rugby’s lore.”

Williams also used the incident to push back against critics of the traditional red-card system, insisting the referee made the correct call.

“To the officials’ credit, Etzebeth was correctly given a full red card by the referee, putting to bed once and for all the ridiculous arguments that the 20-minute red card had undermined the referee’s ability to correctly sanction egregious foul play.”

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He added that regulators were right to differentiate between malicious foul play and accidental head clashes.

“Etzebeth received a full red card because his actions were on a totally different level of violence when compared to accidental head contact in a mistimed tackle. Our regulators have correctly changed the sanctions to differentiate between the two.”

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