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,..., ,i, sto- on a Saturday moming, young Etzebeth to being loaded: even now under the ries that illustrate would take it hard. watchful eye of the Stormers condition- the intent that Eben "He was always like that," recalls his ing coach, Etzebeth can put on a kilo- Etzebeth carries mother, Karen. "He sommer got bedon- gram of pure muscle alter a mere weelCs 'Eben, within. The first nerd. I would often say to hirn, it's work in the weights room. 'No, you may have heard OK if you don t win.' He d say, it's But do not underestimate the role of before. It took place not OK. ma.'He doesn'lbelieve in losing. nutrition in this equation.Etzebeth him- during Stormers He is very goal-orientated. If he puts his selfnever did. In fact, when UCT offered pre-season training mind to something, he will go for it until him the use of a team flat to lure him eadier in the year. he has it. He always wants to win." to the Ikey Tigers, Etzebeth declined While the rest of the sq.rad were push- In his final year at junior primary, in favour of staying in Goodwood and ing out their sets of incline dumbbell Eben was crolrmed victor ludorum at enjoying the benefits of his mother's press using normal weights, Etzebeth sports day (he excelled in sprints and cooking. Mrs Etzebeth still feels the was taping two loose 5kg plates onto jumps), but once he got to high school, strain of feeding her youngest. "Het the heaviest dumbbells ar.ailable (65kg) he found the going harder. His athletics always hung4r," she complains. "Even just to get a decent sweat on. Soon after- career stalled, and he became a fifure when the house is dark and quiet at 11 wards, the Stormers were forced to in the B team backline, roving between otlock at night, I can hear him in the order in pairs of TOkg and 75kg dumb- centre, wing and fi.rllback. But in 2OOZ kitchen at the breadbin. Hell be look- bells, with a request for SOkg weights half rnay through Grade 10, Etzebeth ing for leftovers from supper, or making pending. No-one in South Africa has decided tfiat something had to change. ham and cheese snackwiches. I love it ever neededSOkg dumbbells before. The prospect of playing U19C or D had when he's playing away or there's a tour, The second story you probably saw no appeal, so he joined his brother at so that I can have a rest!" unfold on TV and tlen watched again the local Mrgin Active. His membership in disbelief on YouTube. Five minutes contract only allowed him accessduring into the Super Rugby semifinal between off-peak hours, and he had school and grew playing in the street they the Stormers and the Sharks, Etzebeth rugby practice to attend anlmay, but crossed the road to Goodwood received the ball at head height, took pumping iron had the desired effect and Rugby Club, where they could kick and tlrree small steps and then braced for a soon he started picking up some size. tackle to their hearts' content. After tackle from the on-rushing Bismarck du "When Eben started glrnming, I was he started taking his rugby more seri- Plessis. For an instant both men s bodies bigger than him," says Ryen, now an ously, Goodwood RC was where Eben absorbed the energy generated by the estateagent like his mother. "I was about put in the exba hours and more hard collision of 23Okg of bone and muscle, lookg, but I haven't changed much yards. When he lifted his eyes from the before Etzebeth exploded forwards and because I'm still around 1O5kg. It was turf, Etzebeth would see\gerberg hills upwards, flinging the braunry Sharks that December holiday after Grade 10. undulating across the near horizon. He hooker aside like a ragdoll. After collect- I don't know what happened, but he knew that ifit weredt for the sports bur- ing himself, Du Plessis played on (and just got big. It was quite abnormal, even sary, his mother could not afford the fees had the last laugh at the final whisde) though we were eating a lot of protein. to send him to Tygerberg High. When but no-one at Newlands that day was left A lot of tuna and raw eggs.I don t know his gaze swung west, the sandstone in any doubt about what Etzebeth wiU what happened to his hormones in lump ofTable Mountain loomed over the ultimately be capable of. that holiday, but when he went back to city's sprawl. Who knew that his future T\'vo stories, but the moral is the same. school, his fiends difti t recoglise him." lay in that direction - first at the English Dorlt get in Eben Etzebeth's way. The first-team coach knew a good university on its slopes, and then down thing when he saw it though and the road at western Province? But back '.:: . :r' : :, r. glowing up, demanded that Etzebeth attend trials as then, those Goodwood fields were the 'No, he would beg his brother Ryen, a lock. "I said, I dotit want to play centre ofhis rugby world. older by four years, to come lock. I want to play wing'," Etzebeth After school, Etzebeth sold his scooter and kick the rugby ball in the street. remembers. "But I had no choice, My and moved into hostel at the Westem Etzebeth's. family live in Goodwood, a body decided. So I went to trials as lock Province Rugby Institute in Stellenbosch. modest, working-class suburb laid out and before I knew it, I got my first game The 2O1Ointake - including names like along Voortrekker Road, the original for the frrst team. From there, the family Siya Kolisi, Frans Malherbe, Nizaam road from the Cape to Stellenbosch and genes kicked in and by the beginning of Carr, Scarra Ntubeni and Sam Lane - beyond. Although his was something of matric, I weighed 122kg." began their march on higher honours a rugby family, Eben learned the game at It was an extraordina4r growth spurt by winning the Ul9 Cuffie Cup for schtiol and the enthusiasm he showed as the youngster packed on 4Okg of WP. More than most, Etzebeth knew was al1 his own. His bedroom bulk, and 15cm of height, in two years what was at stake. "I said to mlself, I'm walls were plastered with of solid glmming, maturing and eat- not going to waste a year at the insti- postersof Bobby Skinstad ing like a horse. To achieve gains like tute when I could study and get a job ard Jonah Lomu. and if that, Etzebeth's musculature must be elsewhere. I had to t11/ and make it in his team were beaten of a variety that is exquisitely attuned rugby. When I think back, I should have 'l , II:

"lwasn'tina Iotoffights whenlwas growingup,hut if ithappens, I canstandmy graund,lwould backmyself againstprob- ablyanyone." worked even harder there. No-one ever regretted working hard." When Stellenbosch University weren't interested and UCT came call- ing, Etzebeth leapt at the chance. The best decision of his life, he calls it, and it catapulted him into the big time. Door after door sn ung opel, all with seem- ing ease.The 2011 Varsity Cup was fol- lowed by representing the Baby Boks at the IRB Junior World Championship, and then playing for WP U21 in the Curie Cup. Tom ankle ligaments put a senior Currie Cup debut on ice, but Etzebeth had done enough to earn a spot TOWER0F pOWERl" hisdebut season, Eben Etz€beth passed evefy test that camehis way, in the Stormers training squad. The rest helpingthe Siormersto the SuperRugby seml6nal and the Soksto a series!v n overEngland. including the {un to the Super Rugby semis and a Springbok debut at the ten- Etzebeth."I don t really care what they messedpeople up on the rugby field and der ageof2O is recenthistory. say about that. If people think I play like sorruxe.roff the field too. I think Clifford But the pdce of fame is not always Balkies, let them think that. I wanr ro can keep you busy lbr a few hours with lisled on a lhree-yearWestem Province start my o\ ''n career now and not always all his stories." contract. And your name is not always be known as the next Bakkies. yours alone. When everyone (not just 'And the same with my family, the his nephew, the future Mrs Etzebeths on Facebook Etzebeths. I don't want to live off a is a man of vast proportions. The and at Newlands) wants a piece of you, name that they set down before me. I raw-boned power conferred by the and they all claim to know who you want to create my own legacy and let Etzebeth genetics is undirnmed even at really are, it can get more than a little it stay there for years to come. When the age of 62, but the battered face and fr'ustrating. people hear I'm an Etzebeth, they speak huge, gnarled hands suggest a different "Lots of people have come up with about Clifford and Skattie; about how kind ofcareer in a different kind of time. the comparison to Bakkies Botha," says they played in those days and how they The son of a railway worker, Clifford "I'm glad for my family that they did what they did, played Westem Province or wrestled for South Africa," he says. "But their achievements have nothing to do with me. My parents have always given me the freedom to mal{e my or4'r'r decisions, and I prefer it that way. If l thev dorft influence me, and I make a i mistate, then I can only blame myself." Unleashing all that due diligence and I botded-upenergy is what EEebeth [ves for. "On the field, it's totally different," he says. "You can take out all your frustrations there. I like the confrtrrr tational battle. I like the team. It's as if you become imrnortal, like the X-Men or something." It's that mutant power, the intimi- dating physicality, that makes the field play BIGHITTERAt2.04- andl17kg, Etzebeth is a fearsomeball-carrier, as Bismarckdu Plessis of Etzebeth's natural envjronment canattest, The prospectof watchingthem operate in tandemfor the Boksis molrth-watering. and the arena where he flourishes, Combine the strength required to bench- evaded his old man's temper by jump- There were years of suffering too. Four press 175kg with a backline player's ing out of the cottage window as a of the Etzebeth clan were policemen, explosiveness (Eben covers lom in lo-year-old to join the local wrestling and a fifth was in the correctional ser- 1.65secand 4Om in 5.11sec- incredible club. Three months later, when he won vices. When Clifford was Eben s age, stats for a man his size) ard the result a junior WP title, he got up the courage he found it necessary to moonlight as a really is science frction-esque. to show his dad the cup. Clifford and bouncer at nearby hotel bars. But hard But Etzebeth is no laboratory ath- his brother Skattie went on to \westle iiving takes its to1l. One brother died of lete, wary of the dirty work. "I wasn't for South Africa, while Harq/, Eben s lung cancer. Another died, along with h a lot of fights when I was growing father, wresfled ard played eight-ball his wife - and Clifford's face darkens at up," he admits, "but if it happens, I can pool for Province. Their sister, Alida, the thought - of gunshot wounds when stand my ground. I would back mlself played provincial netball. a domestic dispute tun1ed tragic. Skattie against probably anyone. Our family Clifford was the finest rugby play- was killed while on debt-collecting duty. was known for tleaning' a few bars. I er of the seven brothers and won 25 These days Clifford may have mel- rhink it'sjust in our blood.My brother is Province caps ftom 1977 to 1981. He lowed, but he still radiates the vigour also a guy you must be a little bit scarcd played prop and lock, and roomed on of a very much younger man. At the of. He's not that big, but... just believe tour with Errol Tobias. Those were the gym he spins and rows, works on his me. But on the rugby field, every player days of Morne du Plessis, Naas Botha, core and uses the sauna to drop weight has the guts and attitude to stand up for Gysie Pienaar and the like; when when competition time nears. Although, a fight and take a punch." strong men feared the fists of Kevin he notes, you can often lose as much as No wonder his teammates named de Kler( and Natal's relegation to the 2kg during wrestling practice. How on him Xerxes, after the so-calJedgod-king Currie Cup B section spelled the end of earth? "Sweat," he says.'iAnd sometimes of the movie 3OO. There is only one WP's trips to Durban and the wildest blood." He winks. missing element, the intangible which after-pafiies at DHS Old Boys' Club. will rnake Etzebeth the total player. When he retired, Goodwood Rugby , . r " for the sumame and the and that is confidence. But even that Club made Cliffie an offer he couldn t physique, Eben might as well not be is already emerging, growing strong- refuse, so he played eight more seasons an Etzebeth. He easily passed matric er as the youngster learns his trade. for the first team, until he was 39. Last (despite missing weeks of class while Meanwhile, Eben's teammates take year, half a century after jumping out on rugby tour) and does not yet have a every opporhrnity to make him flex his that window. he won his weight divi- gidkiend. He would rather gym than biceps or show his musdes off for the sion at the masters wrestling world drink, and is grounded in his faith, read- camera. The joke is still on Xerxes. But champioriships. Ask Clifford whether ing the Bible each night and dropping for how much lonser? EE there is much a rugby player can learn to one knee before every match. He is from wrestling, and he will offer to handsome his eyebrows have a wicked WatchEben Etzebeth line up for demonstrate by separating your ann arch - and describes himself as shy. He the Springboksin the Rugby from its socket. has also never wrestled. Championship,25 Augustto 5 October,live on slpersport.