VIDEO: Eben tries to scare the living daylights out of Wallaby prop
SPOTLIGHT: Saturday’s Rugby Championship encounter in Sydney had a feisty denouement when a mass scuffle that had Eben Etzebeth and Allan Alaalatoa at its heart broke out in the aftermath of the result-confirming try scored by Makazole Mapimpi for the Springboks in the 71st minute.
With the scoreline 17-3 in his team’s favour, the South African wing held off three Wallabies players to touch down in the left-hand corner and his reaction after the grounding towards Marika Koroibete resulted in the ensuing brawl breaking out when other players joined.
The incident, which carried on at the perimeter wall with supporters within a hair’s breadth of the arguing players, appeared to be calming down only for it to flare up again behind the tryline with Etzebeth and Alaalatoa going head-to-head against each other.
With rival skippers Siya Kolisi and James Slipper both replaced in the match at that juncture, Etzebeth and Alaalatoa were the respective on-pitch Springboks and Wallabies captains and there was no love lost between the pair as both appeared at different stages of their coming together to put a hand on each other’s face during the bust-up.
Eventually, peace was restored and with the clock stopped on 71:01, here is how the officials came to their decision to award the try, yellow card Mapimpi, take no action against either Etzebeth and Alaalatoa, and eventually restart play following the Springboks conversion kick with a penalty to Australia on halfway:
Eben Etzebeth is ANGRY 😡
He managed to escape punishment after this flare-up with Allan Alaalatoa.
Live Blog 👉 https://t.co/jpgi53jvKK#Wallabies #TRC2022 #AUSvRSA pic.twitter.com/gCdaf3JIKf
ADVERTISEMENT— RUGBYcomau (@rugbycomau) September 3, 2022
Written by Liam Heagney, @RugbyPass
