Sharks Hero of the match: Eben Etzebeth

Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth has made such a stellar start to his career with the Sharks that it has led to a view that he may well be the most important player in the team. So it was perhaps inevitable that when the Sharks were trailing Harlequins 24-15 heading towards halftime at The Stoop at the weekend, a colleague should send a WhatsApp stating: “I haven’t seen Eben”.

That was a perception built out of the expectation that now envelopes Etzebeth, although admittedly it wasn’t really Etzebeth’s type of game up to that point, with the ball being moved by Harlequins far from the contact points.

But suddenly, no sooner had that message arrived, than we saw Etzebeth do something that might well go down as the most memorable play of a high quality game. Harlequins scrumhalf Danny Care placed the ball after getting it back from a loose scrum, then took his time, as he often does.

That habit of Care’s was obviously something the Sharks had picked up on video analysis, for through came Etzebeth to grab the ball and then he ran like the centre he used to be during his schoolboy days in the Western Cape to score a spectacular break back try for his team. It was as audacious as it was bizarre and was easily the best moment of the game from a Sharks viewpoint.