Reviewer: Giyani Baloi
Title: Eben Etzebeth: Ulocked
Author: Eben Etzebeth
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Eben Etzebeth was born on 29 October 1991 in Goodwood Cape Town. He is the second born son of Harry and Karen Etzebeth. Rugby was his life from childhood. He started playing rugby from Goodwood Park Primary School, then Tygerberg High School. He later played for the University of Cape Town Ikeys, Stormers and other clubs before he was called up to play for the Springbok at age 20.
He states in his book Unlocked that his brother Ryen who is 3 years older than him made him stronger when they used to constantly fight.They could fight such that his older brother Ryen once broke his arm during their brawl before they stopped fighting as they were now becoming too big for fighting. Rugby and family are everything to Eben, his father, mother, brother, and now his wife Anilia and children.
He became part of the Springbok team for a long time and has gone through all the South African rugby national team’s failure, and success fazes with different coaches. He is the Springbok’s record holding captain of the 57-0 loss to their sworn bitter rivals, the All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team. He was part of the Springbok team that lost to Japan on a rugby World Cup match for the first in 2015. Something he describes as the lowest blow of his rugby career. He says that after that match with Japan, which the Springbok lost, he stayed locked in his hotel room for 24 hours. Sulking until his teammates came to knock and get him out. He also said that one day, while walking in Cape Town, from nowhere, a taxi driver started shouting at him. Telling him that he and his team are useless.
He describes those days as the most difficult times of his rugby career with the Springbok.The sponsors were also starting to dessert the team, and they were now flying economy class. Something that would make some players travel uncomfortably as most of them are big built physically.
But all that changed with the arrival of Russie Erusmas as the new Springbok team coach. They started winning, game after game, and started breaking records. They won the World Cup in 2019 and defended it in 2023 and became the only second rugby team in the world to manage that feat after the All Blacks of New Zealand. Eben Etzebeth is the current holder of the most capped Springbok player and is still counting. Rugby is life to Eben Etzebeth, such that, even when his father Harry passed on in July 2023, he chose to play in a test match against the All Blacks in Cape Town.
Unlocked is a very poignant, self-written book, and it will make you relive the Springbok games if you are a rugby fan. You will relive the 2023 World Cup finals in France where the Springbok won three matches by one point in a row until the final match that won them their fourth World Cup against New Zealand in France on the 28th of October 2023.
It’s a very good self-written book, but it could have been even better if it had been written by a writing expert.
