Eben Etzebeth has hit back strongly against Courtney Lawes after the Northampton Saints veteran criticised the Vodacom Bulls for fielding a heavily-changed lineup in the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
The Vodacom Bulls came under fire from northern hemisphere pundits for fielding almost an entirely new lineup for the playoff against Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens.
Jake White opted to leave 11 Springboks in South Africa, highlighting the travel issues and injury concerns his side faced.
Lawes was among those critical of White and the Bulls, calling the situation a “carnival” and saying it was blown out of proportion to put pressure on the Saints.
Appearing on the latest episode of The Rugby Pod with Jim Hamilton, Bok lock Etzebeth came out in defence of his countrymen and offered his take on the issue.
“The Bulls got a lot of criticism their way and unfairly I think. Obviously, I saw some players like Courtney Lawes mentioning something, and that’s a ‘South African way’, I don’t know why he mentioned the whole of South Africa,” Etzebeth said.
“He surely doesn’t know what’s going on in South Africa, so he must rather keep his mouth shut.
“It’s Jake’s call. If you’re head coach, you must be able to select whoever you want to. In the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, if you reach the top four and you don’t have a home semi-final, then the chances of you winning that comp is really low,” he added.
“They had to go away in the quarters and then probably go to Leinster and then play again in Europe against maybe Toulouse, so it’s always going to be difficult.”
Photo: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images
The post Eben comes out swinging for Bulls appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Eben Etzebeth has hit back strongly against Courtney Lawes after the Northampton Saints veteran criticised the Vodacom Bulls for fielding a heavily-changed lineup in the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
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