No player can convey the Springboks' uber relaxed mood on the eve of their potentially seismic World Cup semi-final with the All Blacks than Schalk Burger. Yet Steve Hansen assuredly had the back-row tearaway in mind when observing that the Boks would be intent on "knocking our heads off" when the two teams cross the white line for Saturday's 4pm kick-off.
Off the pitch though, Burger is engaging, polite, respectful, invariably good-humoured and humorous. Amid the calm before the storm, as a relatively deserted Twickenham welcomed the semi-finalists for their Captains’ Runs or kicking practice, their vice-captain Burger sat alongside his captain and good friend Fourie du Preez, who recalled how the two teammates at Suntory Sungoliath and next-door neighbours in Tokyo had been eyeing up this match since their days there last year.
Describing this semi-final as “one of our biggest games if not our biggest game in our lives” du Preez recalled: “Myself and Schalk were in Japan together since the end of November and we were talking about this game after training quite a few times. So we’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time now and it’s pretty unbelievable for two guys at this stage _ captain and vice-captain _ to have played for the same club in Japan, which is pretty amazing.”
Reaching this point has been quite an unlikely journey for both men. Burger has recovered from a life threatening bout of bacterial meningitis in 2012, while due to a combination of his two year sojourn to Japanese club rugby and an ankle injury, prior to this World Cup du Preez last played for the Springboks against Scotland in June of last year.
Maintaining the sense of the Boks’ being in a relaxed state, some of the squad played golf and others visited the Chelsea training complex in Cobham on Thursday’s day off. “The boys that went to Chelsea couldn’t believe the facilities,” said Burger. “I think they’ve got three 3G pitches and apparently every single one of them is in better shape than our pitches back home. They couldn’t believe that. It was nice to take a few photos and obviously the rugby players are a bit bigger than the football players.”
Yet du Preez declined to accept that for the first time in a tournament that had them in knock-out mode since that shock opening loss to Japan.
“We are in the same boat we were after Japan. It is still a knockout game. It is a massive game, if not the biggest game of my life and Schalk’s life. The pressure is still obviously on.”
Describing the rivalry between two of the three two-time winners of the Wiliam Webb Ellis trophy and arguably the biggest two superpowers in the game as unique, Burger said: "Growing up in South Africa, my old man played against the Cavaliers in '86, or whatever it was. I grew up watching South Africa play the All Blacks, but again this is a massive game for us, the current crop of generation."
“It’s such a small part of the history between the two nations, so what’s quite remarkable is that we all respect each other, we’re all friends. We’ve played against each other so much, so we can’t wait for tomorrow to start.
“Hopefully the weather can hold out and we can put up a good spectacle. Obviously we want to win, that’s why we’re here. We want to beat the All Blacks, but at the end of the day they’re such a quality outfit, it’s not going to be easy. Hopefully for us, we can do something special tomorrow. We know they’re a great side, it’s not easy to contain them, but it’s going to be a great experience.”
Although the Boks have won only one of the seven meetings since in this World Cup cycle, and two of the last dozen meetings, nobody rattles the All Blacks’ cage quite like their South African foes.
“As well as the times we’ve beaten them, there are a lot of other times where we have come close,” said Burger. “The big thing about them is their attack is phenomenal. They back their execution and skills’ set so they put you under more pressure than any other team in the world. When we’ve beaten them it starts with defence, not letting them have any tempo on the ball, trying to slow them down but then we create a lot of opportunities. There are a lot of turnovers hanging around. If we do get opportunities we have to use all of them. Hopefully we can convert our try-scoring and points-scoring opportunities.”
Burger has been the Boks’ go-to man, carrying 80 times (20 more than anyone else in the whole tournament) and is the tournament’s second highest offloader, with eight, and third highest tackler, with 55. His rejuvenation has mirrored that of his team.
“It didn’t start too rosy for us but weeks after against Samoa and Scotland were probably the toughest we’ve had as a group together. There’s a lot of credit there for the coaching staff and the senior players in the team also took ownership. The only way you can take ownership is if you play well.”
“On my own form,” added Burger, “I am enjoying my rugby, it’s really nice to be a Springboks jersey as a couple of years ago there was no chance of me getting back in. Statistics is one thing and it’s nice to hear but you are here for the team and if I am playing well, it’s good for the team so hopefully that will continue well into the World Cup.”
Burger and du Preez are amongst the veterans of a team that has also been rejuvenated by the young pairing of Lood de Jager and Eben Etzebeth in the second-row, along with Handre Pollard, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel in the 10-12-13 axis.
“I think we’ve got a nice balance in our team,” said Burger, “where we’ve got a couple of old hands with thinning hair sitting up front here and then obviously we’ve got a couple of youngsters, and we draw from their energy and I think if we as the old guard do our job, all they have to worry about is playing rugby and doing what they’re good at.”
“I think we’ve got that right in the last couple of weeks. Obviously you want to try and take as much pressure off them, so decision-making, we’re in charge of that. I think we’ve got it right so far. Again, as I mentioned earlier, we’ve covered all bases but you never quite know how a game is going to pan out, how much the pressure is going to affect us. I think we’ve pretty much covered every base and now it’s up to us to go out and deliver tomorrow.”
Asked if indeed it was the Boks’ intention to rip off a few All Blacks heads, Burger smiled and quipped: “Not at the moment, maybe tomorrow. Again, it’s a physical game and we pride ourselves on that, so do they. We’ve got different styles but it’s pretty similar. We both want to go out there and play rugby, that’s what makes it such an exciting game.”
