Birthday Tribute – Eben Etzebeth | 29 October 2026 | Hollywoodbets Sharks · Springboks · Rugby
Etzebeth has played 147 Test matches for South Africa. Every one of them in the second row, every one of them in the number 4 jersey. Born on 29 October 1991 in Cape Town, he turns 35 today.
No South African has played more Tests. Not Victor Matfield, not Bryan Habana, not Percy Montgomery, not John Smit. A lock holds the record, and he is not finished.
ROOTS: THE WRESTLER’S SON FROM PAROW
Parow is a blue-collar northern suburb of Cape Town and the Etzebeths were known there. His father, Harry, was a professional wrestler. His uncles Cliffie and Skattie were well-known Western Province rugby personalities in their playing days.
He was a late developer. He arrived at Hoërskool Tygerberg in Grade 8 in 2005 at 1.5 metres and 56 kilograms, grew half a metre and put on 50 kilograms over the next three years, and only moved into the pack in his final year at school.
Gavin Beresford, who was involved in the school’s rugby throughout, told rugby365 that as good a lock as Etzebeth is, he remains a better person than he is a rugby player. That was said about a Springbok.
THE EARLY CAREER: CRAVEN WEEK, THE IKEYS AND A TEST CAP AT 20
Western Province brought him into their youth structures in 2009 and he featured at Under-18 Craven Week that year. In 2011 he played for the UCT Ikey Tigers side that won the Varsity Cup, and he went to the Junior World Championship in Italy with the Baby Boks, making five appearances as the side finished fifth.
Super Rugby came on 25 February 2012 against the Hurricanes. Three and a half months later, on 9 June 2012, he made his Test debut against England at Kings Park, a 22-17 win in Durban.
He was 20. He finished that same year with a Currie Cup winner’s medal with Western Province, and he has held the number 4 jersey as first choice almost without interruption ever since.
“147 Tests in the number 4 jersey, and nobody in Springbok history has worn the green and gold more — that is not longevity, that is Eben!” – 🎙️Jay
THE SETBACK: THE FOOT THAT COST HIM HALF A SEASON
A foot injury picked up on international duty in November 2013 ruled him out of the entire first half of the 2014 campaign, the first serious interruption to a career that had gone in a straight line upwards.
The pattern repeated often enough to become part of the story. An ankle after the Junior World Championship, a calf in 2016, shoulders, a hip, concussion. Locks pay a physical bill and he has paid it more than once.
He spent two offseasons with NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes in Osaka in 2015 and 2016, and was part of the Springbok squad that took bronze at the 2015 World Cup in England.
THE BREAKTHROUGH: 50 CAPS AT 24, THE ARMBAND AT 25
In 2016 he became the youngest South African to reach 50 Test caps, at 24. No Springbok had ever accumulated that volume of Test rugby that quickly.
The following year he was handed the captaincy, and he played every minute of the 2017 Rugby Championship and every minute of the three-Test series against France. Not most of it. All of it.
That is the season that ended the argument about whether he was a talented young lock or the foundation of a Springbok pack.
THE PINNACLE: TWO WORLD CUPS, A EUROPEAN TROPHY AND MATFIELD’S RECORD
The gold came in Yokohama in 2019 and again in Paris in 2023, and between them sat the 2021 series win over the British and Irish Lions. He added Rugby Championship titles in 2019, 2024 and 2025, and was named SA Rugby Men’s Player of the Year in both 2022 and 2023 — the second man after Pieter-Steph du Toit to win it back to back.
His 100th Test came against Wales on 16 July 2022, a 30-14 win, with his wife Anlia van Rensburg singing the national anthem before kick-off. He had signed a long-term deal with the Sharks that February after three seasons at RC Toulon.
His father died of cancer in July 2023. Days later he captained South Africa against the All Blacks in Auckland, and three months after that he was a World Cup winner for the second time.
On 24 May 2024 he captained the Sharks to the EPCR Challenge Cup final win over Gloucester, the first major European trophy won by a South African franchise. Four months later, on 28 September 2024 in Nelspruit, his 128th cap took him past Matfield’s 127 in a 48-7 win over Argentina that also sealed the Rugby Championship.
STILL GOING: 147 TESTS, TWO DAUGHTERS AND ONE MORE WORLD CUP
The last twelve months have been the hardest of his career. A red card against Wales in Cardiff on 22 November 2025 brought a 12-match ban running to 28 March 2026, and the injuries that followed his return left him with a single Sharks appearance across the whole season.
He came off the bench against Leinster at Kings Park on 3 October this year in a 26-20 win, then started the Cape Town derby a week later and limped out of it before half-time. The lower-limb injury that followed has kept him out of the Springboks’ November Nations Championship squad.
He married Anlia van Rensburg at La Paris Estate in Franschhoek on 4 February 2023. Their daughters Elizebedi and Lia were born in January 2024 and October 2025.
The Sharks list him at 2.02 metres and 124 kilograms. He stands on 147 Test caps, nine tries and 45 points, with a contract running to 2027 and a World Cup in Australia at the end of it.
Happy 35th Birthday, Eben. From all of us at Just Plain Sport — fourteen years in the hardest jersey on the field and the number 4 still belongs to you. 🎂🏉
