Eben Etzebeth roars back into form to help South Africa level All Blacks rugby series

South African critics of Eben Etzebeth thought he should stay home, hang up his rugby boots and settle into a rocking chair.

This was a month ago.

August arrived, greatest rival New Zealand was in country for a much anticipated historic tour and the most capped Springbok ever had played only once all year, back in April. Etzebeth had been sidelined by an eye-gouge suspension, a hip injury and head knock and doubts swirled.

His second game of the year was against unyielding Argentina in hostile Buenos Aires on Aug. 8. Etzebeth was busy though not sharp but the cobwebs were blown away.

His third game of the year was the first test against the All Blacks at Ellis Park. Etzebeth started badly but warmed up. He was merely ordinary and South Africa was stunned 33-16.

His fourth game of the year was the second test last weekend in Cape Town and he was, to put it plainly, Eben Etzebeth. He harassed the All Blacks lineout, spoiled three of their attacking throw-ins and took five catches. He added 18 tackles, two of them dominant, one stripped carrier, one crumb of a contestable and fingers on an intercept. South Africa won 33-26.

Another great South Africa lock, Victor Matfield, raved about Etzebeth on the Rugby Rivals podcast. “He was under pressure in South Africa — ‘He hasn’t played a lot, he's not in great form' — but he stood out,” Matfield said. “At lineout time he was fantastic. His work rate was just unbelievable and that's the Eben we know. For me, it was important that our most experienced player, in a week like this where there was a lot of pressure, stood up.”

The third test is on Saturday, back in Johannesburg at giant FNB Stadium.

Etzebeth was chucked into the four-test series incomplete but he doesn't question coach Rassie Erasmus' whys and wherefores. When Erasmus took charge in 2018, Etzebeth bought in. He was the captain in 2017 and accepted it going to Siya Kolisi, with whom he has been friends since they were teenagers.

“Being a Springbok became special again,” Etzebeth told The Verdict podcast. “We were willing to go to dark places to get victories and results. In the past it was almost like you were just happy to be a Springbok. Rassie got that belief, hunger and excitement back.”

Silverware came back, too, from winning the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and 2023. Etzebeth started both finals.

The advent of the Bomb Squad is extending his career. He's started 133 of his 144 tests but not finishing as many as he used to. He says he doesn't mind because not getting picked hurts more.

He wants to play for as long as he can and hasn't picked a year to finish. He's 35 next month. He'll turn 36 the day before a possible 2027 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal between South Africa and New Zealand in Sydney.

“Every year the younger guys are just bigger, better and faster,” he said. “They push me to improve and that's the way it should be.”

Etzebeth was the youngest Springbok to play 50 tests (24 in 2016) and 100 tests (30 in 2022). That 100th test was lined up for Cape Town so his father Harry, stricken with cancer, could attend. His then-fiancée Anlia sang the national anthem. He was man of the match.

Harry died the following year while Etzebeth was in New Zealand. He stayed there to captain the Boks because Harry would have wished it.

Etzebeth was born into a family of professional wrestlers, which gave them a rough and tumble reputation. Etzebeth felt he didn’t fit in until at 15 he endured a growth spurt of 20 centimeters and 20 kilograms. He was moved from the wing to lock. Now he's 2.03 meters (6-foot-8) and 120 kilos and a menace to box-kicking scrumhalves.

Etzebeth was 20 when he debuted for the Springboks in 2012, the season after the second row was vacated by Matfield and Bakkies Botha.

Both stalwarts would return to the Boks but work around Etzebeth, who enriched the post-apartheid line of fearsome team enforcers who happened to wear the No. 4 jersey: Adri Geldenhuys, Kobus Wiese, Mark Andrews and Botha.

Matfield always appreciated having the pugnacious Botha as a partner — a world record 63 tests together in the second row — and he was on hand when his all-time record of 127 Springbok test appearances was passed by Etzebeth in 2024.

Matfield marvelled at Etzebeth's gifts: The work rate and take-no-prisoners attitude.

“You always want that one guy that, when you run onto the field, the other pack know there's no chance you're taking on this one guy,” Matfield said. “That's what Eben's been giving this pack for the last (now 14) years.”

See AP’s full rugby coverage here

FILE - England's Courtney Lawes, left, and South Africa's Eben Etzebeth battle for the ball during the Rugby World Cup semifinal match between England and South Africa at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Oct. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

New Zealand's Luke Jacobson, left, is being challenged by South Africa's Eben Etzebeth during a second Test rugby match between South Africa and New Zealand, in Cape Town, South Africa, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Halden Krog)

FILE - 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, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

FILE - South Africa's Eben Etzebeth celebrates his team's victory over Australia in their Championship Rugby test match in Sydney on Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was ordered released from federal custody Friday after pleading not guilty to lying to investigators about the circumstances that led to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minnesota immigration crackdown last winter.

The federal indictment accuses Christian Castro of falsely telling investigators that he was attacked with a broom and shovel before he opened fire, injuring Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in January.

Castro was shackled at his wrists, waist and feet during a brief hearing in the federal court in McAllen after he turned himself into authorities Thursday evening. The judge ordered him released on a $75,000 unsecured bond and with a GPS ankle monitor.

It's the first Justice Department prosecution of a federal officer for actions taken during this year's massive Operation Metro Surge, which brought thousands of agents to the Twin Cities and led to sweeping protests, arrests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers.

The allegations in the federal indictment mirror those brought by Minnesota officials, who have separately charged Castro with assault and false reporting of a crime related to the nonfatal shooting of Sosa-Celis.

According to the federal indictment, Castro told an FBI agent that a man grabbed a red broom off a front porch and began hitting him with it while Castro was trying to detain another man outside a Minneapolis home. Castro also claimed that another man hit him with a snow shovel and that he opened fire while on the ground as the men ran away.

The indictment alleges that Castro had a short “physical interaction” with Sosa-Celis and another man, before the two ran into a home with a 1-year-old child inside. Castro then fired a shot through the front door while standing as the men began to close it, hitting Sosa-Celis in the leg, the indictment says.

“No person struck” Castro “with a broom as he described, and no persons wielded the broom and snow shovel as he described,” the indictment says.

An attorney for Castro urged the public not to rush to judgment without learning all the facts and to let his client “have his day in court.” Castro served in the military before becoming a federal immigration officer, the lawyer, David Lindenmuth, said after the hearing.

“His life has been that of public service to our country and to our nation, either through its military or protecting its borders and enforcing its laws,” Lindenmuth said.

Federal prosecutors had initially charged Sosa-Celis and the other man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, with assault but dropped the charges after video evidence showed the officer may have lied about the encounter. Castro was suspended from ICE in February while authorities pursued an investigation.

The federal charges follow Castro’s release from jail last week after Texas’ governor refused to immediately sign an extradition warrant to hand him over to Minnesota authorities.

The federal investigation into Castro created turmoil inside the Justice Department, with a prosecutor on the case accusing higher-ups of blocking efforts to bring more serious civil rights charges.

In an email obtained by ProPublica, the prosecutor told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and others that Castro would be charged only with making false statements over his “strongest objections,” adding the decision was “being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney.”

A person familiar with the investigation, however, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the civil rights probe is continuing and additional charges could still be brought.

The prosecutor, Matthew Evans, has since been fired and the Justice Department is now investigating whether he broke any laws during his handling of the case, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not publicly authorized to discuss ongoing investigations.

An automatic email response from Evans’ Justice Department account said he was on leave, and other attempts to reach him were not immediately successful.

Sosa-Celis' lawyer is pressing for Castro to face stiffer charges, saying in a statement on Thursday that Castro’s statements were made to “cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification.”

“Mr. Sosa Celis wants Mr. Castro to be held fully accountable for his crimes,” said the attorney, Robin Wolpert. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said Thursday that Sosa-Celis also plans to seek damages from the federal government.

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Richer reported from Washington.

FILE - A federal agent wears an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge in New York, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)