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InternationalSouth Africa

Eben Etzebeth 'stood down' from rugby by Toulon

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

South Africa’s World Cup-winning lock Eben Etzebeth will spend the next three months on the sidelines.

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Etzebeth’s French club, Toulon, revealed in a statement that the Springbok star has been ‘stood down’ in compliance with the “concussion protocol”.

The 30-year-old suffered his third concussion in a year during South Africa’s 26-27 loss to England in their year-end international at Twickenham last week.

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“After specialist advice and in accordance with the concussion management protocol of the National Rugby League, the player must observe a three-month break,” Toulon said in a statement.

“Rugby Club Toulonnais wishes Eben Etzebeth a speedy recovery.” the French outfit added.

The veteran second row forward, capped 97 times by the Boks, played 245 minutes in South Africa’s three year-end Tests.

Eben Etzebeth – South Africa
Club: Toulon
Position: Second row
Age: 29
Caps: 97
Debut: v England, 2012
Height: 6’7”
Weight: 123kg

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Comments on RugbyPass

B
BR 10 minutes ago
The five players who can swing the Springboks tour in the All Blacks' favour

Ben Smith is crack for the bokke. Basically fuels the Bomb squad with his drivvel.

3 Go to comments
G
GG 11 minutes ago
The five players who can swing the Springboks tour in the All Blacks' favour

Critical Razor settles on the spine of the team- need strong front row, dominant lock, 8 th man and then Scrummie/flyhalf and fullback. In the 2 seasons just gone, way too many changes and uncertainty. Should have added inside center as we call it, and here Jordie is key. Time to settle and build caps into the guys to be ready for 2027

3 Go to comments
G
GG 15 minutes ago
The five players who can swing the Springboks tour in the All Blacks' favour

Don’t often comment on Ben’s stuff, but here he is spot on. I am a Saffa but really want the ABs to get back to their rightful place. The drivel coming from NH about the demise of the ABs pisses me off

3 Go to comments
J
JW 16 minutes ago
All Blacks: How the forwards depth rates against Razor's four deep project

Isn’t more just fans geeking out? More like just a hobby people do, I guess it has some purpose, but in reality I’d say it’s more about Razor having backup that know the environment and processes and can come in and perform to the best of their ability at short notice.

I’m unsure if he’ll have a spreadsheet detailed to where he has someone like Fourie down as a depth option at hooker, and knowing how when he would kick in that option (ie who he is around in the depth/ability wise).



...

36 Go to comments
B
Boddasaffa 28 minutes ago
'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott

Naturally you will write an article and big your team up. The greatest team debate is mute.

1. The AB team were trend setters at the time, the current refs would not allow RM to push the boundaries like he did.



...

64 Go to comments
J
JW 34 minutes ago
What Tony Johnson is hearing about the vacant All Blacks assistant role

Well it’s only happening of course because the area around the landing zone was opened up for the attackers to flood it by the removal of screeners, so the question would be can we simply revert the change, or has a viable strat been found accidently and it would still be advantageous to do it even with defenders back in the area?

Defenders in that area now have to ‘follow’ the chaser into the jump zone rather than be ‘ahead’ (and blocking) of them like before? As I say we haven’t seen it in the SH so you guys would know best, but if defenders having been letting too many attackers into that jump zone, is it possible for them to adapt and ‘block’ everyone else but the kicker, ensuring they get into the zone before his team mates? Like is their a viable defense to it or does the law application prohibit it?



...

48 Go to comments
W
Wayneo 43 minutes ago
'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott

Don’t worry mate, you guys get another opportunity to set the record straight next year. Just don’t take it too hard if it’s a 3-1 or 4-0 series. The 1 is at Ellis Park, maybe…

64 Go to comments
N
Ninjin 59 minutes ago
'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott

Noted!

64 Go to comments
N
Ninjin 1 hour ago
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The Springboks do not dope. Those who do go away for 4 years same as the rest of the world.

50 Go to comments
N
Ninjin 1 hour ago
Alex Mann won't face citing for part in Wales-South Africa incident

Assumptions?

77 Go to comments
N
Ninjin 1 hour ago
'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott

And they still will not make the final and if they do they will lose again.

64 Go to comments
N
Ninjin 1 hour ago
'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott

Yup

64 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
Bok superstar may exit South African rugby with giant offer tabled

HAHAHA nice, I didn’t see that third in the background! All I saw was the ‘look at me’ thumb 💪 and the ‘look at that guy’ finger 😂

Jokes.



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9 Go to comments
S
Snash 1 hour ago
'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott

Oh dear JG Eng will lose to Boks by 10 points in July next year - at least. They wont win the 6 nations either.

64 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
New Zealand Rugby offers context to All Blacks coaching roles

Meeting was obviously for another purpose, but the exact quote was “yes”, so I think he’s probably more referring to the original quote, as in ‘what was the whole discussion’, rather than how the media portrayed it (which is all that we have access to).

Even this article doesn’t tell you what the question is that Chris answered for instance.



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2 Go to comments
S
SB 1 hour ago
New Zealand Rugby offers context to All Blacks coaching roles



“I’m not sure of the exact quote, but I think the sentiment is out of context a bit”

Why not read what the actual quote was then come prepared to speak with the media?



...

2 Go to comments
S
SB 1 hour ago
All Blacks great suffers huge plummet in RugbyPass Top 100 in 2025

Will be very interesting to see which 2 out of McKenzie, Mo’unga and B. Barrett make the 23 next year if Jordan is going to continue to be the fullback.

5 Go to comments
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SB 1 hour ago
Rated: The best and worst Springboks of 2025

SFM, Reinach and Marx with very close total scores across their 11 tests.

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GrahamVF 1 hour ago
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I just cannot scroll through 1500 words of repetition every third post. Reminds me of the time in the Argus when ad sales had skyrocketed and for once we genuinely were filling the spaces between the ads.

70 Go to comments
S
SB 1 hour ago
'Beatable' Boks not the most dominant team ever: Jeremy Guscott

In the same way, when autumn matches come around. The Rugby Championship sides have had the luxury of training together and playing many tests to gain cohesion as well as improve (unless you’re Scott Robertson’s All Blacks). Then they play against teams who have been together for a few weeks, but not so much is talked about that from what I have seen.

I agree, the World Cup is the best test because all sides have had the same amount of preparation.



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64 Go to comments
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