MBOMBELA, South Africa (AP) — The guy who eclipsed the great Victor Matfield as South Africa's all-time caps record-holder wants to keep playing rugby for as long as his body can hack it.
Eben Etzebeth became the most capped Springbok in his 128th test on Saturday, and said he's still loving what he does.
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South Africa's Eben Etzebeth catches the ball during a rugby championship test match against Argentina at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa's Eben Etzebeth, right, is tackled by Argentina's Joel Sclavi during a rugby championship test match at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa's Eben Etzebeth goes out on the field for a rugby championship test match against Argentina at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa's Eben Etzebeth jumps for the ball during a rugby championship test match against Argentina at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Winning trophies helps.
Etzebeth played all 80-odd minutes as South Africa won the Rugby Championship for the first time in five years by dominating Argentina 48-7.
It was a typical Etzebeth performance: He carried seven times, made 10 tackles — second only to fellow lock Ruan Nortje — caught a couple of throw-ins and conceded a penalty.
After receiving a special tasseled cap to mark his milestone from Matfield, with whom he went to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Etzebeth said, "The milestone wouldn't have been nice if we'd lost this game. The team really showed up.
“The guys wanted to make it special for me, but it will always be a team sport, and the trophy was the big thing, and we'll celebrate it very nicely tonight. It was an unbelievable performance from everyone.”
Etzebeth debuted in mid-2012 against England at age 20. He was the fastest Bok to 50 tests and the youngest Bok to 100. The Bok enforcer doesn't turn 33 for another month. He appeared in all six Rugby Championship rounds.
"I've made no secret that the reason I play this game is to play for this team; to perform for my (Sharks) club and to be selected for the national side — that's the ultimate.
“So I'll keep pushing, training hard and performing for my club and hopefully the coaches will keep on selecting me. I never like to share my goals with the public — I like to keep it close to my heart — and I'll still push on, and if the body's good I'll continue to go.”
That was sweet news to Springboks captain Siya Kolisi, with whom Etzebeth goes way back.
“We have been together since we were 18 and you've been a true friend and you have led us in so many ways the way you play the game,” Kolisi said.
“I am so proud of you and pleased to be your friend. I can't wait to tell my grandkids I played with Eben Etzebeth. Cheers, my friend, I love you.”
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
South Africa's Eben Etzebeth catches the ball during a rugby championship test match against Argentina at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa's Eben Etzebeth, right, is tackled by Argentina's Joel Sclavi during a rugby championship test match at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa's Eben Etzebeth goes out on the field for a rugby championship test match against Argentina at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa's Eben Etzebeth jumps for the ball during a rugby championship test match against Argentina at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
BEIJING (AP) — In China, the names of things are often either ornately poetic or jarringly direct. A new, wildly popular app among young Chinese people is definitively the latter.
It's called, simply, “Are You Dead?"
In a vast country whose young people are increasingly on the move, the new, one-button app — which has taken the country by digital storm this month — is essentially exactly what it says it is. People who live alone in far-off cities and may be at risk — or just perceived as such by friends or relatives — can push an outsized green circle on their phone screens and send proof of life over the network to a friend or loved one. The cost: 8 yuan (about $1.10).
It's simple and straightforward — essentially a 21st-century Chinese digital version of those American pendants with an alert button on them for senior citizens that gave birth to the famed TV commercial: “I've fallen, and I can't get up!”
Developed by three young people in their 20s, “Are You Dead?” became the most downloaded paid app on the Apple App Store in China last week, according to local media reports. It is also becoming a top download in places as diverse as Singapore and the Netherlands, Britain and India and the United States — in line with the developers' attitude that loneliness and safety aren't just Chinese issues.
“Every country has young people who move to big cities to chase their dreams,” Ian Lü, 29, one of the app's developers, said Thursday.
Lü, who worked and lived alone in the southern city of Shenzhen for five years, experienced such loneliness himself. He said the need for a frictionless check-in is especially strong among introverts. “It's unrealistic,” he said, “to message people every day just to tell them you're still alive.”
Against the backdrop of modern and increasingly frenetic Chinese life, the market for the app is understandable.
Traditionally, Chinese families have tended to live together or at least in close proximity across generations — something embedded deep in the nation's culture until recent years. That has changed in the last few decades with urbanization and rapid economic growth that have sent many Chinese to join what is effectively a diaspora within their own nation — and taken hundreds of millions far from parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Today, the country has more than 100 million households with only one person, according to an annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024.
Consider Chen Xingyu, 32, who has lived on her own for years in Kunming, the capital of southern China’s Yunnan province. “It is new and funny. The name ’Are You Dead?' is very interesting,” Chen said.
Chen, a “lying flat” practitioner who has rejected the grueling, fast-paced career of many in her age group, would try the app but worries about data security. “Assuming many who want to try are women users, if information of such detail about users gets leaked, that’d be terrible,” she said.
Yuan Sangsang, a Shanghai designer, has been living on her own for a decade and describes herself as a “single cow and horse.” She's not hoping the app will save her life — only help her relatives in the event that she does, in fact, expire alone.
"I just don’t want to die with no dignity, like the body gets rotten and smelly before it is found," said Yuan, 38. “That would be unfair for the ones who have to deal with it.”
While such an app might at first seem best suited to elderly people — regardless of their smartphone literacy — all reports indicate that “Are You Dead?” is being snapped up by younger people as the wry equivalent of a social media check-in.
“Some netizens say that the 'Are you dead?' greeting feels like a carefree joke between close friends — both heartfelt and gives a sense of unguarded ease,” the business website Yicai, the Chinese Business Network, said in a commentary. ""It likely explains why so many young people unanimously like this app."
The commentary, by writer He Tao, went further in analyzing the cultural landscape. He wrote that the app's immediate success “serves as a darkly humorous social metaphor, reminding us to pay attention to the living conditions and inner world of contemporary young people. Those who downloaded it clearly need more than just a functional security measure; they crave a signal of being seen and understood.”
Death is a taboo subject in Chinese culture, and the word itself is shunned to the point where many buildings in China have no fourth floor because the word for “four” and the word for “death” sound the same — “si.” Lü acknowledged that the app's name sparked public pressure.
“Death is an issue every one of us has to face,” he said. “Only when you truly understand death do you start thinking about how long you can exist in this world, and how you want to realize the value of your life.”
A few days ago, though, the developers said on their official account on China’s Weibo social platform that they’d pivot to a new name. Their choice: the more cryptic “Demumu,” which they said they hoped could "serve more solo dwellers globally.”
Then, a twist: Late Wednesday, the app team posted on its Weibo account that workshopping the name Demumu didn’t turn out “as well as expected.” The app team is offering a reward for whoever offers a new name that will be picked this weekend. Lü said more than 10,000 people have weighed in.
The reward for the new moniker: $96 — or, in China, 666 yuan.
Fu Ting reported from Washington. AP researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed.
The app Are You Dead? is seen on a smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A woman looks at her smartphone in a cafe in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A woman looks at her smartphone outside a restaurant in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A man looks down near his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A man reacts while holding his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
