Former England prop Joe Marler has crowned Bakkies Botha the most feared rugby player of the professional era.
But he’s controversially labelled Springbok enforcer Eben Etzebeth a “fake tough guy”.
Marler was asked on the Hits Different show to pick the game’s ultimate hardman in a knockout bracket featuring rugby’s biggest hitters from 2008 onwards.
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When it came to Botha versus Sébastien Chabal, the former Harlequins heavy didn’t hesitate.
“He has got to be up there with one of the dirtiest players going,” Marler said of the ex-Springbok lock.
“Massive unit, filthy, punching, headbutts, elbows. Did he ever get done for gouging? Probably never got caught, but probably did it.
“Chabal wasn’t ever dirty, was he? He would melt people. He was horrible.”
Botha advanced, and kept advancing.
Marler added: “Bakkies would strike fear into any opposition, both teams in fact.”
“It’s tough because you go ‘Well, he’s a thug, an out-and-out thug’. That’s what he played his game on just melting people but not legally.
“He wasn’t really a world-class rugby player, he was a world-class thug and was part of world-class teams… Was I scared of Bakkies? Yeah, I was always scared of him.”
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Etzebeth, meanwhile, didn’t escape a playful jab when matched up against Brad Thorn.
“He does a lot of what I used to do,” Marler said of the double World Cup-winning Bok.
“All fight, no poo. Fake tough guy for me. It’s exactly what I used to do, fake tough guy.”
Photo: Stephanie Lecocq/REUTERS
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