Etzebeth is new Bok bruiser

As he leans casually in a doorway at the South African team hotel in the Dublin suburbs, his near six feet and eight inches topped with a boyish mop of hair, the quiet presence of Eben Etzebeth appears at odds with his burgeoning reputation as the Springboks’ newest hard man.

He has the height, for sure, that make second rows consider the NBA as a viable option but the newly-turned 21-year-old from Cape Town chatting to reporters ahead of this weekend’s Test with Ireland does not look the enforcer type.

Yet a quick search through the Etzebeth highlight reel suggests otherwise and anyone who takes a peek at the young Stormers lock barrelling through the formidable frame of Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis during a Super XV game this summer will be left under no illusion that this kid is more than capable of filling the gap left by Bakkies Botha.