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Unlocked: The Must-Read Rugby Memoir of 2025
Eben Etzebeth is the most-capped player in South African Rugby history. A towering lock, whose intelligence, energy and aggression on the pitch is feared, respected and often imitated but never matched, he is the heart and soul of the Springbok team, a key part of their astonishingly successful run that encompasses two consecutive World Cups and a current two-year-stint at the top of the world rankings.
In his first book, Eben will uncover the key driving factors in his extraordinary career, and how he keeps focussed, both on and off the pitch. From his humble beginnings in Goodwood, a Cape Town suburb where nothing came easy, to his place within the South African squad and their inner workings, get ready for a rugby story like no other.
In his first book, Eben will uncover the key driving factors in his extraordinary career, and how he keeps focussed, both on and off the pitch. From his humble beginnings in Goodwood, a Cape Town suburb where nothing came easy, to his place within the South African squad and their inner workings, get ready for a rugby story like no other.
286 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 2, 2025
32 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 21, 2025
This was a good read about the life and career of the Bok legend. From humble beginnings in Goodwood where he still played in the backs at age 16 for the B team, to where he is todays most capped Springbok. His story is very interesting and he takes you behind the scenes into all the teams he has played and into his personal life and what makes him tick. He is seen as a bruiser on the field, but off it he is just a normal guy that likes to have fun and loves his family, and that is what rugby is all about.
I looked forward to this book a lot, and it is probably a bit unfair to give this book a 4-star rating, as I am comparing this to the Siya Kolisi and Rassie Erasmus books in my Springbok trilogy I read this year. Those two books are just a step above this one for me personally. This is still a good book and covers the 2023 Rugby World Cup as well which is great. Hopefully Eben and the boys can make it a three-peat in 2027, GO BOKKE!!
I looked forward to this book a lot, and it is probably a bit unfair to give this book a 4-star rating, as I am comparing this to the Siya Kolisi and Rassie Erasmus books in my Springbok trilogy I read this year. Those two books are just a step above this one for me personally. This is still a good book and covers the 2023 Rugby World Cup as well which is great. Hopefully Eben and the boys can make it a three-peat in 2027, GO BOKKE!!
November 16, 2025
Unlocked — Eben Etzebeth (October 2025)
📦 Power personified. Vulnerability disclosed. A titan turning his armour inside out.
💥 A memoir where physical dominance coexists with personal reconstruction.
📍 Cape Town, Toulon, and the liminal spaces between public myth and private man.
🗝 Identity, loyalty, confrontation. Etzebeth dismantles the caricature built around him — revealing discipline, doubt, and the cost of carrying other people’s projections. The tension lives in duality: brutal enforcer, thoughtful strategist; national icon, individual under scrutiny.
What if the hardest man on the field was also the most exposed?
Etzebeth’s memoir is not a catalogue of tackles and trophies; it is a reckoning. He traces his journey from Goodwood township to becoming the most capped Springbok in history, but the narrative’s pulse lies in the contradictions: the lock who embodies brute force yet admits to fragility, the leader who commands silence while wrestling with doubt. He writes of family hardship, the psychological toll of high level rugby, and the unseen fractures that accompany public myth.
The book’s rhythm alternates between battlefield and sanctuary: World Cup victories replayed in visceral detail, then the quieter confessions of dressing room politics, fractured loyalties, and the burden of expectation. Etzebeth honours mentors and teammates, but he also confronts the caricature of “enforcer” that has shadowed him — showing how reputation can be armour, but also prison.
This is a memoir of collisions, but also of recalibration: brutal self analysis, tributes to those who shaped him, and a clear eyed hope to inspire youth who see only the myth, not the man. Etzebeth’s frankness opens the door to the green and gold jersey, revealing what it costs to wear it, and what it means to carry it.
If you like memoirs where toughness is peeled back to reveal humanity, this delivers the same moral unease as dramas where strength itself is questioned.
💭 “Reputation is a mask — it fits until it doesn’t.”
💭 “Strength is tested in silence long before contact is made.”
📚 Why @KlacksReads recommends: Because it’s an unguarded recalibration of a figure often misread, revealing the psychology behind the physicality — a reminder that even titans bleed, and that legacy is built as much in confession as in collision.
@KlacksReads · London · 14 November 2025
📦 Power personified. Vulnerability disclosed. A titan turning his armour inside out.
💥 A memoir where physical dominance coexists with personal reconstruction.
📍 Cape Town, Toulon, and the liminal spaces between public myth and private man.
🗝 Identity, loyalty, confrontation. Etzebeth dismantles the caricature built around him — revealing discipline, doubt, and the cost of carrying other people’s projections. The tension lives in duality: brutal enforcer, thoughtful strategist; national icon, individual under scrutiny.
What if the hardest man on the field was also the most exposed?
Etzebeth’s memoir is not a catalogue of tackles and trophies; it is a reckoning. He traces his journey from Goodwood township to becoming the most capped Springbok in history, but the narrative’s pulse lies in the contradictions: the lock who embodies brute force yet admits to fragility, the leader who commands silence while wrestling with doubt. He writes of family hardship, the psychological toll of high level rugby, and the unseen fractures that accompany public myth.
The book’s rhythm alternates between battlefield and sanctuary: World Cup victories replayed in visceral detail, then the quieter confessions of dressing room politics, fractured loyalties, and the burden of expectation. Etzebeth honours mentors and teammates, but he also confronts the caricature of “enforcer” that has shadowed him — showing how reputation can be armour, but also prison.
This is a memoir of collisions, but also of recalibration: brutal self analysis, tributes to those who shaped him, and a clear eyed hope to inspire youth who see only the myth, not the man. Etzebeth’s frankness opens the door to the green and gold jersey, revealing what it costs to wear it, and what it means to carry it.
If you like memoirs where toughness is peeled back to reveal humanity, this delivers the same moral unease as dramas where strength itself is questioned.
💭 “Reputation is a mask — it fits until it doesn’t.”
💭 “Strength is tested in silence long before contact is made.”
📚 Why @KlacksReads recommends: Because it’s an unguarded recalibration of a figure often misread, revealing the psychology behind the physicality — a reminder that even titans bleed, and that legacy is built as much in confession as in collision.
@KlacksReads · London · 14 November 2025
January 10, 2026
Just finished Eben Etzebeth: Unlocked, and I’m honestly blown away. Eben is one of my all-time favourite players, a powerhouse on the pitch and a giant of South African rugby, and hearing his own side of the story was both humbling and deeply powerful.
This isn’t just a rugby bio. It’s real. Eben doesn’t hold back on the highs or the lows, and what hit me most was how human it all felt. You hear about the big hits and the big wins , but reading how he felt when things went wrong, when expectations were crushing, when moments didn’t go the way we hoped… it hits differently. I found myself tearing up a few times, not because it’s dramatic, but because you genuinely feel what he felt.
What I loved most about this book:
His love for the game, raw and unfiltered
His connection to South Africa, proud and emotional
His bond with teammates, friends, and family, grounded and real
His honesty about leadership, pressure, and identity
Whether you’re a Springbok fan, a rugby lover, or just someone who appreciates a human story behind a sports career, this book lands hard and sticks with you.
It shows exactly what it means to be South African in more ways than one, and why the Springboks are not just a team but a feeling for so many of us.
Huge recommendation from me. If you care about rugby or the man behind the jersey, put this on your list.
This isn’t just a rugby bio. It’s real. Eben doesn’t hold back on the highs or the lows, and what hit me most was how human it all felt. You hear about the big hits and the big wins , but reading how he felt when things went wrong, when expectations were crushing, when moments didn’t go the way we hoped… it hits differently. I found myself tearing up a few times, not because it’s dramatic, but because you genuinely feel what he felt.
What I loved most about this book:
His love for the game, raw and unfiltered
His connection to South Africa, proud and emotional
His bond with teammates, friends, and family, grounded and real
His honesty about leadership, pressure, and identity
Whether you’re a Springbok fan, a rugby lover, or just someone who appreciates a human story behind a sports career, this book lands hard and sticks with you.
It shows exactly what it means to be South African in more ways than one, and why the Springboks are not just a team but a feeling for so many of us.
Huge recommendation from me. If you care about rugby or the man behind the jersey, put this on your list.
October 18, 2025
In the book, starting with a prologue which I felt a bit unexpected and not the most appropriate to start a book off with speaking about what came across as a very humiliating loss to Japan within his rugby career, it took a very quick, sudden you-turn for the better in something more interesting and even more eye-opening as with every page I was from then looking more and more eager to turn for the better to take in and understand this attractive memoir.
I did find there to be a lot of important names and moments in rugby past, which are mentioned, that someone who may not know too much about the sport may struggle to hold a proper understanding of when these moments are spoken about, and even more so when these moments are talked about in further detail. However in saying that I do feel the book is definitely most appropriate for any everyone who may have even just a basic to average understanding of the sport for it will definitely allow you to fully take in and properly appreciate more all the extremely well inside and behind the scenes information which Eben has more than kindly shared which I can very confidently will make you not only look at just about every Sprinbok rugby player differently but also allow you to appreciate the importance of how our country holds the game of rugby in general!
Definite benefits that this book also holds are that it will allow the readers to see how elite athletes build their careers (including all the bumps and sacrifices) through a book that is continuously page-turning from the first chapter all the way through until the last page, for I assure you that this book will deliver!
I did find there to be a lot of important names and moments in rugby past, which are mentioned, that someone who may not know too much about the sport may struggle to hold a proper understanding of when these moments are spoken about, and even more so when these moments are talked about in further detail. However in saying that I do feel the book is definitely most appropriate for any everyone who may have even just a basic to average understanding of the sport for it will definitely allow you to fully take in and properly appreciate more all the extremely well inside and behind the scenes information which Eben has more than kindly shared which I can very confidently will make you not only look at just about every Sprinbok rugby player differently but also allow you to appreciate the importance of how our country holds the game of rugby in general!
Definite benefits that this book also holds are that it will allow the readers to see how elite athletes build their careers (including all the bumps and sacrifices) through a book that is continuously page-turning from the first chapter all the way through until the last page, for I assure you that this book will deliver!
December 31, 2025
Eben Etzebeth is a personal hero to myself as with many South Africans. This book just shows us that Eben is more than just a Springbok legend but a down to earth, father and family first person. A man everybody can look up to. His love for the springboks does not even compare to his love for his family. Eben had a journey like no one other but he made sure to make the best of it.
This book is not your typical autobiography or non-fiction. It is just a personal story from him to us. Giving as an insight to an actual gentle giant. I hope to meet Eben one day, maybe even have a good conversation with him. Like many of his team mates he gives us hope and someone to look up to. It is an absolute pleasure to watch these gentleman on the rugby pitch and winning it all for South Africa. Therefor we can be forever thankful.
Thank you Eben for sharing your story!
This book is not your typical autobiography or non-fiction. It is just a personal story from him to us. Giving as an insight to an actual gentle giant. I hope to meet Eben one day, maybe even have a good conversation with him. Like many of his team mates he gives us hope and someone to look up to. It is an absolute pleasure to watch these gentleman on the rugby pitch and winning it all for South Africa. Therefor we can be forever thankful.
Thank you Eben for sharing your story!
December 31, 2025
Better written than most South African sports biographies, thanks to the UK publishing deal and English ghost writer, so a quick and easy read with some genuine insights from a titan of the game – but it suffers from the fatal flaw of being a premature publication. Eben's career has too far left to run to justify what is essentially a career summary (rather than a glimpse into a moment in his career) - the All Blacks tour of 2026 and a third Rugby World Cup attempt in 2027 are conspicuous by their advance absence...
December 18, 2025
Eben has always been my favourite Springok! But reading this I learnt so much more about him, his career, the family man he is and why he is one of the best to ever play.
A must read for all rugby fans!
A must read for all rugby fans!
November 29, 2025
It was an easy and fun read. Amazing to relive all the rugby moments that defined his career.
December 23, 2025
Book felt more like a memoir about the past 10 years of the springboks and less like a memoir about Eben.
January 6, 2026
This man is yes.
January 6, 2026
Loved this book
As an avid springbok and eben supprter this was an awesome journey through his life. Absolutely filled with game knowledge too.
As an avid springbok and eben supprter this was an awesome journey through his life. Absolutely filled with game knowledge too.
December 14, 2025
This is an easy read providing a good summary of a Springbok legend’s career thus far. Since he is still going strong, one cannot help but wonder what stories are yet to come.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews