The Irish media is definitely targeting me – SA's Etzebeth

South African Eben Etzebeth says the Irish media were “definitely targeting me” after he accused Ireland of being “arrogant” following their World Cup group match last year.

In April, Springbok player Etzebeth said that “probably 12” of the 23 players in the Irish squad said: “See you in the final, boys” after the Irish won their Group B encounter 13-8.

However, Ireland lost again to New Zealand in the quarter-finals, while South Africa defended its world championship title by reaching the final against the All Blacks.

When asked about his comments on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's Test against Ireland in Pretoria, Etzebeth stuck to his statements.

“Look, I said what I said,” said the two-time world champion.

“It was after the game and I see a lot of them saying, 'How could I accurately count that amount?'.

“You're just giving an estimate, because it was definitely not less than six or seven, it was not more than 20. I was just giving an estimate.”

Etzebeth, who started in the group stage in Paris last year, added: “I said what I said. We will never say to a team after a game, 'See you in the final', when there is still so much rugby to be played.”

“Maybe they were trying to say that they think we're a good team and that we might make it to the top. But people definitely misinterpreted it a bit and took it a bit out of context.”

“Ireland probably still has a score to settle”

Etzebeth was speaking after being named in the strong South African squad, which includes 12 world champions, for Saturday's first Test at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.

Although South Africa have won the World Cup twice in a row, they have lost their last three matches against Ireland.

However, Ireland has never won a series in South Africa.

“From their side, they probably still have a score to settle to become number one. [in the world]”, said Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus.

“We don't talk like that. We analyse the players, we see how they perform in the URC. [United Rugby Championship] and in the European Cup. We then put together our team of players who we believe can do the job for us.

“We train really hard. We try to stay in reality, but our reality is that we are playing at home against a team that beat us. All the games were really close, they all deserved them.”

Former World Rugby Coach of the Year Erasmus added: “But it's never 'we have a score to settle'. I'd rather take a World Cup, two World Cups and a British and Irish Lions series and accept the three defeats.”