Eben out of action
10 Feb 2013
Eben Etzebeth will miss the start of the Stormers’ Super Rugby campaign after being ruled out for six to eight weeks with an ankle injury.
The Bok lock limped off in the first half after landing awkwardly at a lineout and a subsequent scan revealed that he tore ligaments in his left ankle.
‘It’s unfortunate for the team and Eben, but like I said after the match yesterday injuries are part and parcel of the game,’ said Stormers coach Allister Coetzee.
‘We are fortunate to have players in our squad who can step in and fill that role and that’s our focus for now – to find a player to fill that No 4 lock role.
‘At the same time, however, our medical team will also ensure that Eben recovers well and comes back strongly for the Stormers.’
192 Comments
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10 Feb 2013, 17:38 pm
Injury proned Dragon
There goes Jonny Sextons’ hammy as well
10 Feb 2013, 17:48 pm
A heck of a pitch battle goes on in Dublin, in the rain and the mud, the lot!
Etzebeth has been over used, thought it was expected earlier
10 Feb 2013, 17:51 pm
Ag shame, Stormpies. Never mind, Eben. Have a nice break and rest up for national duty.
10 Feb 2013, 17:55 pm
@kaksioek-3:
Sharks fans will obviously be delighted that their team wont have to face him especially as he destroyed their lineouts in the currie cup final and also made mincemeat of Bismark a month earlier.
10 Feb 2013, 18:06 pm
@Robzim-4: It is about now I say thankfuckpants we bought Rhodes (who shoud be fit for the start of the tournie?)
Schalk won’t play guppies, neither will Eben.
So it’s Elstadt at 4……
Rhodes on the bench…..
Loose trio? Siya, Nizaam and Duane at 7?
10 Feb 2013, 18:10 pm
@Robzim …now its time for Bresler to take his rightful place as the Bok 4. Lol
10 Feb 2013, 18:12 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-5:
Don’t think Rhodes will be ready for the first few games.
Stormers have the same problem at lock that the Sharks have at prop.
Namely, one more injury in either position and theyre in a bit of trouble.
10 Feb 2013, 18:13 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-5:
Yes… I think that would be the best option… Siya started slowly yesterday but got better and better.as the game progressed. Armand should also be considered.
Fourie will probably start at 2 and be moved to no 6 later in the match like yesterday. Tireless worker, punches far above his weight…. but his lineout throws are still attrocious? Bezuidenhoudt (the Lion) seems quite a good player too.
10 Feb 2013, 18:14 pm
@Slappes-6:
He only needs to get a proper haircut and he will be the best lock in the country by a mile
10 Feb 2013, 18:19 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-5:
Apparently Rhodes might not be fit in time.
10 Feb 2013, 18:21 pm
Oh fark…. card for Haskell….
10 Feb 2013, 18:23 pm
Old Man O’Garra as cool as a cucumber… 6 all..
10 Feb 2013, 18:24 pm
Ja, maybe that discarded Shark can save your bacon.
10 Feb 2013, 18:28 pm
Farrell just as cool as O’Garra… 9-6
10 Feb 2013, 18:29 pm
Its a long season and Eben will be needed when the Stormers get to the business end.
10 Feb 2013, 18:31 pm
Farrell coould be the new Wilkenson…12- 6
10 Feb 2013, 18:32 pm
My heart she is broken
10 Feb 2013, 18:37 pm
@Dawn-17:
lol….and to make matter worse for U his potential replacements (Elstadt and Steenkamp) are never going to challenge Brad Pitt in the “good looks” department
10 Feb 2013, 18:39 pm
@Jeraldjay-15: I just don’t see there being any “business end” for the Stormers this year. I reckon they’re in for a pretty average season. They have peaked above their abilities over the last 3 years and a 4th year will be a year too long.
10 Feb 2013, 18:41 pm
@Liewe Luiperd-19:
Also true, Sharks are overwhelming favourites to easily win the SA conference
10 Feb 2013, 18:43 pm
i knew it
10 Feb 2013, 18:44 pm
@Liewe Luiperd-19:
Thank you for that vote confidence, Wooden Spoon.
Appreciated as always.
The Sharks will go far, I’m sure.
10 Feb 2013, 18:46 pm
@I am a stormer-22: you see a “wooden spoon” in every shark supporter, don’t you. Do you need to speak to someone about it?
10 Feb 2013, 18:47 pm
Is this guy Spooner??
10 Feb 2013, 18:47 pm
@Liewe Luiperd-23:
Love your new nic.
10 Feb 2013, 18:48 pm
@Liewe Luiperd-23: i was called the same thing! Bunch of Stormer idiooooots.
10 Feb 2013, 18:48 pm
@Dawn-24: no I am meant to be too prawny.
10 Feb 2013, 18:49 pm
@Chico the Chihuahua-26:
Clown.
10 Feb 2013, 18:53 pm
Good away victory for England. Big Hit and Carol must be delighted, they great bloggers, just a pity they support the “wrong” SA teams. Maybe they will wake up and become honorary stormers one day.
10 Feb 2013, 18:54 pm
The Sharks are looking awesome this year.
And they have the most awesome supporters.
They will definitely be there at the business end of the competition. You can bet your house on it. The Stormers will be hard pressed to match this marvellous outfit.
10 Feb 2013, 18:56 pm
@I am a stormer-30: complex, much?
lol why do some Stormers like you have such a MASSIVE chip on your shoulders about the Sharks?
10 Feb 2013, 18:59 pm
I think you Stormers cheerleaders need something to cheer you up:
Rocking your rugby world.
6 Feb 2013 Players should be judged on performance and not the promise of performance. Selectors, coaches, media and supporters should lose their obsession with age and the restriction of four year cycles. If you read this to the end you could be the making of rugby’s revolution. To the brandy and coke okes don’t go beyond this point. The introduction of the Rugby World Cup was to give one country official bragging rights to officially being called the best in the world. It grew quickly into a commerciaL beast whose appetite to be fed will only increase. It is no longer about bragging rights but about commerce and the supposed investment of the game in the future. But those who appoint themselves as the architects of vision are merely enforcing the limitation of their vision on whoever is prepared to emulate what is deemed to be the best, when the innovators and inspirers are the ones who define success on creating and giving something unique, which is then interpreted by the chasing pack as the standard that invariably has to be matched. Unfortunately everyone wants to be the best but society’s stone-cast, yet non sensical, set of rules cater only for contradiction because while it caters for the mind to be aspirational it provides a greater immediate seduction and safety net for the mind to favour the short term comfort of conservatism. Society’s selfish cavaliers are too often the ones reinforcing the reward and restriction that gives the majority the comfort that conservative is good because there is no risk but with cavalier could come failure. With cavalier however comes something new every time and the possibility to success. Conservatism’s failure is that it brings no new reward. The rugby media and supporters are a primary exhibit of what is aspiration and what is acceptable and the ideal of being the best is always replaced with a sense of satisfaction that not coming last is the equal of coming first. The result is the core of teams in any competition and the core of people in life are conditioned that having the fantasy of wanting to be the best and the reality of never been called the worst is the most sought after emotion. It is why core of coaches will talk about breaking new ground but always revert to what they know because it’s not deemed failure. Oh to find coaches who see the adventure in selection and strength of individual skills that combined make for the extraordinary. Those investors in teams do so out of vanity so their intention is not to want the best rugby team. Supporters and the rugby media are the most powerful investors in the coach who can talk of unchartered ground and know the adventure will be a shared one with those who determine his job security, which is the supporter and the reporter. Why do the two of us actually have the responsibility and the power of influence? Because for there to be a rugby team there has to be an owner, but an owner only wants a club if he has an audience who actually pay his bills and spend the money and his players need an audience to perform. The reporter in rugby is also the game’s story teller and without the story being told, be it in print, electronic or by broadcast, the performance is reduced to a bunch of blokes enjoying a Sunday social run around. Owners and investors need an evolving audience so they need to have a story being told. More paying support and more money allows for better player purchases and dividends. The rewards are great and the risk is the story teller’s words wreck a business and don’t seduce enough to inspire this new audience to pay more than the existing ones. Coaches are restricted – and we are the worst culprits. You and me. Our opinions, pre game, demand adventure, investment of skill and something out of the ordinary, but we make the demand of wanting to see a creation without it being allowed to stumble in pursuit of seeing its capabilities. The World Cup is all about keeping the professional game one controlled by elected officials, who get the benefits of a professional game by way of sponsorship, broadcast deals and a paying support base. It’s commercial value is restricted because those who control it use it as the controlling influence of the game. The World Cup should be a tournament within rugby’s professional identity. Currently everything else is compromised because to succeed at the World Cup once every four years allows for any amount of failure. The Word Cup is a great tournament but it should be seen as tournament and not as the pinnacle of a four year cycle. All enjoyment and adventure and logic are compromised with the possibility (not probability) of our team winning the World Cup. What then, a month later this team is playing again and the chance is there to get beaten? And that’s okay? The game should be played in the current and the obvious is wanting to do better today than was the case yesterday. Think of the madness of the statement if I told you that living was about four years of toil and restriction and just maybe you will get one day in the sun and then your reward is you can at least boast toyour friends about it. The right brag your team is the best in the world once every four years apparently has such gravitas that everything is compromised and excused within those four years. The World Cup – and its four year cycle – has restricted a game yet those who control the game through elections and not necessarily intelligence – are convinced its been a revolution. Every value of selection has been compromised. The best aren’t always played for fear of injury. Performances lacking in pedigree are dismissed as not playing the World Cup-winning hand and no player is assessed on what he brings to the team in the week that team is selected. Players, not yet good enough, are picked now because in three years time they may have to need World Cup final experience. Players, more experienced, are questioned because age is again the restriction and the fear of not knowing whether he will be too old is deemed a worse one than the fear of not knowing if a player, picked on what could be, is actually not good enough. Professional rugby tournaments have forced the evolvement of a squad system, but the supporter is as amateur in his demand for one and only one starting XV as the amateur administrator is in wanting the players to be thankful someone is willing to actually to administer their game and give them the platform to play. The media is the worst culprit because the reports discuss a player being dropped when it is the workings of a squad system. The media influences the supporter who is in the professional game the most important voice because it’s the voice of the paying customer. Think about the power of the supporter but a confused buyer is a sucker of a buyer and rugby’s elected official only sell you the game they want to control and not the one you want to necessarily watch. They think the player is a liability because the supply is greater than the demand and they think the game is about the way they govern when it’s future is exclusive to those who support with their eyes and their cash. The numbers have again allowed to influence restriction because to start has a bragging right that it is somehow means a player is better than the guy who is the greatest exponent of closing out a win in the role of a substitute. The different skills of these two types of players have never been allowed to develop because those who govern and the majority who support resent the player earning money from a game in which the limitations of the game being strictly amateur have grown to legends of romance and beauty. No amateur player was exposed to a playing schedule the equal of a professional player. That is why one to 15 worked then but it doesn’t matter now who starts and who finishes. All that is significant about the number is that 15 stays on for the duration of the match. Age, another number, is the greatest curse because it means performance is secondary. Endorsing the romance of the amateur days only encourages the restriction in potential pleasure of a professional game. The coach needs to use a squad system to last the season but the supporter wants only the 15 best every weekend and everyone has ultimate escape of planning for a World Cup. The performance of the player is not the priority any more. It’s how that performance fits the four year cycle. The performance is no longer the celebration. How wrong. Player ‘A’ wins your team the Test match and he gets no sense of your joy because you have already accepted he won’t be around for the World Cup and instead of the joy of the day your focus is the possible pain of the big World Cup day. How absurd is that? What does that say about us that invariably our pleasure is from a possible bragging right once every four years and we condition ourselves to believe that living is about the possibility of feeling something extraordinary in four years time and that living to experience something extraordinary has the risk of death. Imagine the possibilities of sport if the worth of a team was determined by the pleasure gained through performance and not by relief at not losing. For rugby, like any sport, to ever be true to the supporter and give pleasure the supporter would have to change his mindset. That won’t happen because it’s about bragging rights and being defined by what you can tell others or what they will have to say about your team. Only to a few is it about the pleasure they derive from their emotional investment in a team whose pedigree as much about their belief in the manner of performance and not just the winning result in a performance. Super Rugby can’t rock your world if electric guitars and drums are a risk to your hearing. And when there’s no real sound to what you think looks like a great visual performance then no pie and beer should be enough of a lure to keep you coming back. If it is then eating pies is your passion not watching rugby. Super Rugby should be about the uncertainty of your heartbeat and not about the certainty of your heartburn. Here’s to your team rocking your world this season in the pleasure you get from their effort and not in the way it makes you feel only if they win. Now that’s a bragging right because you got reward for your emotional investment. We want our team to win but if we are watching it for pleasure then the winning is in that emotion. Rugby, like rock and roll, should never be compromised by restriction, especially not by an audience whose passion is for the pleasure felt in watching a performance. If you are the type of Super Rugby supporter so insecure in identity that your team has to win to give you a reason to smile and give your voice a growl every Monday morning at the office then let’s agree that we will always disagree because my pleasure is your pain and your pleasure, even in observation, is more torture than pain. To the minority who want the rock and roll, we’ve got every Saturday to live this season. To the oke so desperate to tell you how kak your team is he’s got one Saturday to live through what will be the pain of 80 minutes so he can feel relief that he will be able to tell you his team is the winner.
10 Feb 2013, 19:02 pm
I dont give a **** wat any1 says ,the Stormers are the best south african team by fakin miles thank you v much!!!!!!
You should make every1 of them springBokke !! I will eat dog **** of a sharks jersey if they beat us and wipe my mouth with a stormers jersey
10 Feb 2013, 19:02 pm
Chico, you small like a chihuahua?
10 Feb 2013, 19:03 pm
@Liewe Luiperd-31:
Not at all, mate. For me it is just feet on the ground stuff. The majority of sensible Stormers supporters on this site – yes, and there are many – just like to see the Stormers take it one game at a time and hopefully build up some momentum. That is all.
And seriously, I couldn’t give a continental about the Sharks. Or the Bulls for that matter. They must look after themselves.
You ok with that?
10 Feb 2013, 19:05 pm
@kaksioek-32:
Ok, now can I please get the executive summary?
10 Feb 2013, 19:06 pm
I spoke to Alistair after the game yesterday, and judging by what he said, He mentioned a possibility of Elstadt at 4 and Deon at 6, with Martin B starting at 2. Deon providing Hooker cover and Carr and Armand on the bench.
Alistair gave Deon some game time at 6 on Saturday when Martin B came on. Martin played really well. I’d personally be tempted to play him at 2, with Deon, Siya and Duanne.
There is still the Schalk factor though. Schalk will be assessed by the physio on Monday, and will then be put through his paces to see how he does. If all goes well it will be hard to leave him out.
Still 2 weeks before the first game so things can change.
10 Feb 2013, 19:10 pm
had a feeling this was going to be more serious than a sprained ankle…
any the view from the sunny side of the street at the brighter sudd of life suggests this is a blessing in disguise…
eben to get more rest and out-beast the beast and everyone else for the rest of the season..,!!!
10 Feb 2013, 19:10 pm
@I am a stormer-36:
Keo is smart.
We are all dof.
The World Cup is dof.
Keo is smart.
The media are dof.
Keo is smart.
Rugby coaches are dof.
Keo is smart.
Rugby is lekker.
Keo is lekker. And smart.
10 Feb 2013, 19:11 pm
@stormersboy-37:
Interesting. Schalk will be introduced gradually off the bench. AC has also stated that he will only start with those who game time over the last 2 weekends.
Bekker and Elstadt looked hungry for action – obviously missing the action. But I’m still nervous for the first 2 matches.
10 Feb 2013, 19:12 pm
Yip, definitely Sharks to win this SR …like they did in the CC. Keegan Cullen still attending therapy as are most of his supporters.
10 Feb 2013, 19:12 pm
@kaksioek-39:
Gotcha! Now please don’t ever post that again.
10 Feb 2013, 19:13 pm
@ufo-38: Hey boet howzit. Ja it’s a pity but i guess that’s how it goes, and now we have the opportunity to get Elstadt (the most impressive player on Saturday for me) in at 4 where he made his mark previously, and also either Schalk at 6 with Siya at 7 or the other way around. I would play Deon at 6, but Siya played really well too.
Still not ideal to have the hard man out. Andries also did well, got 60 minutes so all in all ok.
10 Feb 2013, 19:16 pm
@I am a stormer-40: Yes absolutely would have preferred Eben at 4 against the Sharks. They have some hard men in there and would have wanted Eben in the mix to manhandle Alberts a bit and show him how it’s done, with Elstadt providing some back-up. Keeping them honest.
I guess we’ll have to make do with just one of the “terrible twins” in action for a while……….
10 Feb 2013, 19:17 pm
@I am a stormer-42: Never forget – Keo 06/02/2013.
10 Feb 2013, 19:18 pm
@I am a stormer-42: There was also something about pies.
10 Feb 2013, 19:18 pm
When is Keo going to hire Stormerboy?
10 Feb 2013, 19:22 pm
@stormersboy-44:
Yeah, Elstadt definitely looks up for it. I seriously hope he lasts the full campaign – he is one of those no-nonsense type of players – I hate to use the word enforcer. I still remember the game where he introduced himself to Bakkies at Loftus a few years ago.
This is one massive campaign. And once again, depth will be seriously tested and I think we have that covered in the loosies this year. With some of those who can cover lock as well.
10 Feb 2013, 19:23 pm
@gunther-47: You mean he doesn’t already get paid to post here?
10 Feb 2013, 19:24 pm
@gunther-47:
keo can’t afford him.
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