South Africa star Eben Etzebeth caused a storm in recent times with comments about his interaction with the Ireland players after the Rugby World Cup meeting between the sides last autumn.
Ireland would defeat the Springboks in a pool game back in September, a fixture that many felt at the time was a dress rehearsal for a possible final in the competition. Of course, while South Africa would go on to reach and win that decider, Andy Farrell's men exited at the quarter-final stage at the hands of New Zealand.
Speaking on The Rugby Pod recently, Etzebeth recalled how a number of Irish players had told him they would 'see him in the final' after the pool game and labelled the comments as 'arrogant'.
The thing was obviously you shake the guy’s hands and probably 12 out of the 23 when I shook the hands told me, ‘See you guys in the final’.
Because the way the logs worked out we were going to play France and they were going to play New Zealand and my immediate thought was, ‘Are these guys seriously not even thinking about the All Blacks in the World Cup quarter-final playing against them?’
So that remark they made, ‘See you guys in the final’, I was just like these guys are making a big mistake to look past probably one of the most dominant teams, or probably the most dominant team in the last 20 to 30 years of Test rugby.
Those comments caused quite a stir.
While some were shocked by the supposed arrogance of the Irish players, others were not convinced by Etzebeth's version of events.
Now, someone within the Ireland camp has publicly addressed the matter.
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Rugby: Ulster man baffled by Etzebeth's claims about 'arrogant' Irish comments
Stuart McCloskey did not feature for Ireland in the game against South Africa, although he has some serious doubts about the claims that were made about his teammates.
Appearing on The Rugby Pod, the Ulster star suggested that Eben Etzebeth has misinterpreted what were likely to be polite comments about a possible clash between the two games later down the line. He also questioned if the 32-year old has embellished the story by mentioning the amount of players that had mentioned a final meeting to him.
It seems like a crazy thing that he was counting them, for one. That seemed a bit wild he was counting them out.
I haven’t spoken to the lads about it. There’s maybe only Iain Henderson was playing from an Ulster perspective but I assume they were just saying it in a way trying to be humble in the victory kind of thing.
Like, you guys will still be there because obviously they were a classy team, they ended up winning so they got the last laugh. But I don’t think there was any malice in it or arrogance on the guys’ behalf if they did say it...
That’s the only way I could see them saying it. I don’t think there was an arrogance from the squad’s behalf that we were going to get there definitely anyway.
This explanation certainly makes a lot of sense.
If Ireland players did mention a potential Rugby World Cup final meeting, it was likely no more than a few words of encouragement for an opponent that they have a huge amount of respect for.
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