Kevin Foote was coaching a young Eben Etzebeth at UCT in 2011 when he lost his temper with him at half-time. This is what his assistant said to him.
“I remember Dave [Wessels] saying to me afterwards: you’re very lucky that Eben hasn’t killed you.”
Foote told that story on SuperSport’s Boks Unpacked, recorded in the build-up to Baltimore and published last Friday. Etzebeth won his 146th cap the next day and the Springboks took the series 3-1. Would you have had the nerve? The comments are open.
Foote now coaches the Junior Springboks, world champions in 2025 and again in 2026. Jean de Villiers, hosting, asked him about the 2011 UCT side. Robbie Fleck sat alongside.
Etzebeth said before the decider that he rated it above his two World Cup medals, then played an 8.5 in Baltimore. Foote knew him before anyone had a reason to ask.
The tighthead was getting punched at every scrum
UCT were playing away at Potchefstroom against NWU, the side everyone calls Pukke, on 14 February 2011.
The job of answering a punch on your prop belongs to your own lock. Foote had a 19-year-old in the second row who was not doing it.
“I remember we were playing in Pukke and our tighthead Shane Meier was getting punched in every scrum. Their lock was coming through and hitting and I was getting so frustrated with Eben cuz I wanted Eben to do something about it, and just before half-time he got tackled into touch and I just lost it… I gave it to him in the half-time speech.”
Note what set him off. His lock had been carried into touch while his prop was being hit, and Foote read that as the wrong man taking the beating.
What Kevin Foote saw in a young Eben Etzebeth
Then the changing room.
“Cuz his eyes popped out like this and he just absolutely tore into this [Pukke] team.”
UCT won 36-8. Wessels delivered the killed-you line afterwards, and he was joking. Mostly.
Read also: what one South African schoolboy derby taught Jim Hamilton. The system that produces players like this, seen from the outside.
Twenty months from a provincial bench to the Springboks
“In the October of the year before, he was sitting on the bench for Western Province under-19… he came to us… and after the Varsity Cup he actually made SA starting lock under-20. So he had jumped those provincial locks.”
October 2010: not in the starting side for a provincial age-group team. Somebody told Foote to go and talk to him anyway.
Early 2011: UCT win the Varsity Cup for the first time, with Etzebeth at lock.
June 2011: he starts at the Junior World Championship in Italy, having gone past the provincial locks who were ahead of him eight months earlier.
9 June 2012: he plays England at Kings Park on debut. South Africa win 22-17.
Twenty months from a bench in Cape Town to a Test jersey. Fourteen years later he started the Baltimore Test that won the series 3-1, a week after the 29-24 in Soweto had put the Springboks 2-1 up.
The thing Foote noticed was not the aggression
Everyone remembers the aggression, because it is the easiest thing to see. Foote put it third.
“From the get-go we knew he was going to be special. He was so fast as a lock, physical and aggressive. So he was a big reason for us being successful that year.”
Speed came first in that list, and for a second-row it is the rarer asset. A lock who arrives late at rucks is a passenger for 80 minutes no matter how hard he hits.
Go back to the Baltimore tape at the kickoff receipt and the first three phases after it. Count how many times Etzebeth is the second man to the collision rather than the fourth.
On 10 minutes he stole the lineout that ended New Zealand’s first real attack. On 39 he charged down Cam Roigard’s box kick.
That is the 2011 player, still running. New Zealand scored 17 tries to 14 across the series and lost it 3-1. The pack that keeps arriving first is the reason.
Read next: How Rassie Erasmus hatched the 7-1 bench split, told by Eben Etzebeth. The selection nobody thought would survive a season.
Your turn
Foote shouted at a teenager and got a monster. Dave Wessels thought he had got away with something.
Would that half-time speech get a coach sacked in 2026, or is it exactly what the best players have always needed? And if a coach ever did it to you, did it make you better or did it just make you angry?
Frequently asked
What did Kevin Foote say about Eben Etzebeth?
On SuperSport’s Boks Unpacked on 11 September 2026, Foote said he lost his temper with Etzebeth at half-time in a 2011 Varsity Cup match at Potchefstroom. He said Dave Wessels told him afterwards he was lucky Etzebeth had not killed him, and that Etzebeth then “absolutely tore into” the opposition.
Did Eben Etzebeth play for UCT?
Yes. He played lock for the UCT Ikey Tigers in 2011, the season they won the Varsity Cup for the first time, with Foote as head coach.
When did Eben Etzebeth play for the Junior Springboks?
He started at lock at the 2011 Junior World Championship in Italy, a few months after the Varsity Cup. South Africa finished fifth.
When did Eben Etzebeth make his Springboks debut?
On 9 June 2012, against England at Kings Park in Durban. South Africa won 22-17.
Did Eben Etzebeth play against New Zealand in Baltimore?
Yes. He started at lock on Saturday 12 September at M&T Bank Stadium, his 146th Test. South Africa won 43-28 and took the series 3-1.
Kevin Foote was speaking on SuperSport’s Boks Unpacked, published Friday 11 September. Quotes are from that episode; names and spellings have been corrected from the auto-captions, inserted words are in square brackets, and cuts are marked.
