Why I decided to dig into Eben Etzebeth’s stats
So last Friday I was watching rugby highlights when my mate texted me: “Etzebeth’s stats must be insane this season yeah?” Got me thinking – I’ve seen the dude tackle like a beast on TV, but never actually checked his real numbers. Time to fix that.
Getting my hands dirty
First I grabbed my laptop around 8pm after dinner. Opened my usual sports sites and just typed “Eben Etzebeth stats” straight into the search bar. Immediately hit a wall – bunch of sites wanted subscriptions or made me click through ads till I got dizzy. Almost threw my coffee cup at the screen.
After like 40 minutes of this garbage, I finally found one decent page that didn’t ask for credit card details. Started jotting things down in my notebook:
- Height: Holy hell the guy’s 2.03 meters? No wonder he towers over everyone
- Weight: 122kg?! My car weighs less than that
- Test caps: Over 100 international games? That’s older than my kid’s schoolbooks
Surprises along the way
Found some wild stuff I never expected – like he actually played handball growing up? Explains those octopus arms snatching balls mid-air. Then stumbled on this video clip showing him making tackles that looked like truck collisions.
But the craziest part? Comparing his current stats to like 5 years back. Dude’s getting better with age like cheap whisky – more tackles, more carries, less penalties. My back hurts just looking at those collision numbers.
Why this stuff matters
Here’s the kicker – while I was knee-deep in these stats, my boss pinged me about some data project at work. Showed him my messy Etzebeth notes as proof I can dig through numbers. Next thing I know he’s offering me lead on the quarterly report project! Turns out rugby stats practice landed me a promotion meeting next week.
Funny how this started just settling a beer argument with my mate. Moral of the story? Sometimes checking sports stats leads to work wins. Still can’t believe Etzebeth’s basically a human wrecking ball with better career numbers than my retirement plan though.
