‘I know we’re getting a bit older’: Etzebeth addresses Boks' age profile

South Africa lock Eben Etzebeth has highlighted the benefits of having an ageing squad, saying “experience is quite important” as the Springboks look to win Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series this Saturday.

Etzebeth, who will turn 35 next month, is one of 14 players over the age of 30 in the matchday squad named by Rassie Erasmus for Saturday’s fourth and final Test against the All Blacks at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

But while the age profile of the Boks has been flagged by some as a hindrance, Etzebeth sees it as a positive, and has insisted that he and the elder statesmen in the squad are “working a lot harder than when we were younger.”

“Experience is quite important,” the 145-cap lock said ahead of the match this week.

“A lot of us talk about what happens on the field and what we can do better in certain situations. There’s still a big sense of responsibility, not just individually, but as a collective to keep representing South Africa well and to the best of our ability.

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“I know we’re getting a bit older, but personally it feels like we’re working a lot harder than when we were younger. I think I speak on behalf of all the older guys who have been here for a while. We understand how fortunate we are to still be here, and I think that’s why we’re still performing at such a high level and competing with the best in the world.”

That experience has been invaluable for the Boks during this series, in which they have recovered from losing the first Test at Ellis Park to win back-to-back matches.

That is familiar territory for the Boks, who not only overcame a first Test defeat before winning the British & Irish Lions series in 2021, but also lost in the pool stages of both the 2019 and 2023 World Cups before going on to win the Webb Ellis Cup on both occasions.

Etzebeth and his team-mates are acutely aware of that. He said: “Every time we don’t start well, we pull together. It happened in the British & Irish Lions series (in 2021). In both World Cups (2019 and 2023) we lost a pool game and there was no more room for losing, so we’ve been in this situation before and it’s happening again.”