OPINION: As Test record looms, is Eben Etzebeth the Boks’ best ever No 4?

If everything goes according to plan and he doesn’t pick up a serious injury this weekend, Eben Etzebeth will become South Africa’s most capped rugby player in Mbombela in the Rugby Championship Test against Argentina next Saturday.

He is then set to play his 128th Test match – that’s a whole lot of Test rugby, and we’re not even talking about all his provincial games for the Stormers, Western Province, the Sharks, Toulon (in France) and the Red Hurricanes (in Japan).

The 32-year-old will play off the bench in Santiago, Argentina on Saturday and is set to equal Victor Matfield’s 127 Tests record for the Boks.

It is a quite remarkable achievement and as the former Bok and Bulls skipper himself said recently, Etzebeth is sure to go down as this country’s greatest player. He also said there was no one more deserving to break his record … and he’d be right.

Comparisons with Bakkies Botha

Etzebeth has been a Springbok powerhouse from his very first Test match, played back in 2012.

He has been fortunate to not have too many serious injuries, which has helped him get to this stage of his career, a 12-year journey which has seen him become one of the game’s biggest stars. He has won two World Cups, won numerous other big matches and competitions and has also regularly captained the Boks, almost permanently during the 2017 season.

There is no doubt Etzebeth will go down as a Bok great, but it was still interesting this week to read public comments comparing him to the man he basically took the Bok No 4 jersey from, Bakkies Botha.

Who was the better player, and in a Bok all-time best XV, who’d be the first choice No 4?

While there is certainly a case to be made for Botha, who most agree had a real hard physical presence and almost scared opponents, Etzebeth, who some have said is a combination of Matfield and Botha, is for me the better all-round player, with the bigger impact in a game of rugby.

No matter who you believe to be the better player, the Boks have been blessed to have an individual of Etzebeth’s class for 126 Tests and long may he still run out for the national team.