Schalk Burger is rugby royalty in these parts. There is a buzz among hotel staff when he arrives for a chat and obligingly poses for pictures. Retirement has not reduced his profile or popularity.
The former Springbok icon and World Cup-winner is 38 and savouring his new life as an ex-player, having left Saracens and returned home two years ago. Burger is busy, providing punditry for SuperSport and expanding his online chat show ‘Use It Or Lose IT’ with former team-mate Jean de Villiers. ‘We were bored in lockdown so we started interviewing our mates, basically,’ he jokes.
As a proud Capetonian, he is relishing the stockpile of marquee fixtures taking place in his home city. Three days ago, South Africa ‘A’ – a national team in disguise – beat the Lions 17-13. Today, the Stormers will seek to blow the tourists further off course, before all three Tests are due to take place here, in the shadow of Table Mountain.
Schalk Burger is a Springbok icon for his role in South Africa's 2007 World Cup win
Burger made headlines for the wrong reasons by gouging Luke Fitzgerald in the eye in 2009
Burger has a fascinating insight, having represented this province for many years and been part of a South Africa team which conquered the Lions, to embellish their charge to global glory two years earlier. His time at Saracens provided a close-up view of the game in Britain and Ireland, and the talent and character of men such as Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje.
Warren Gatland is here on a mission to make amends for the 2009 series, when he was forwards coach and the Lions lost 2-1 to the Boks. From a British and Irish perspective, it was an agonising demise. For Burger, it was a bitter-sweet episode, as his involvement was controversially curtailed.
He recovered from injury in time for the second Test in Pretoria, only to be sin-binned in the opening minute for gouging Ireland wing Luke Fitzgerald. While the hosts snatched the victory to clinch the series, Burger was banned for eight weeks.
‘We won the Test series but obviously, for me, it was over-shadowed by eye-gouging Luke Fitzgerald in my 50th Test match,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘You get things wrong. Never in the world would I go out to eye-gouge somebody. I’m a relaxed bloke. I was relaxed before the Test match but when I ran out, I switched it on. That’s how I approached every game but maybe, sub-consciously, I over-hyped it. You make mistakes and learn from them. It’s 12 years ago now. Everyone asks me about it still!
‘Even though I was playing in my 50th Test match, I was 26 – I was still young. At 26, all of us are still learning, aren’t we? It was nothing against Luke Fitzgerald. He’s a good bloke. I probably played a few games against him afterwards. It was just one of those things that happens. By the time you realise you’ve done it, it is too late. It has already occurred.
‘You go back over it in your head and start thinking, “Was I over-hyped?”. Maybe, but not really. It was a big game, you don’t get to play against the Lions very often and you want to make an impression. Obviously I just made the wrong impression. But you can’t regret these things.’
'If we dominate the scrum, the Lions will be struggling,' Burger said ahead of the three Tests
The Lions were incensed that Burger was not sent off and he admits that they had a point. ‘They were saying it should have been a red card and it probably should have,’ he added. ‘Now, it would be a straight red.’ He is also honest enough to accept that if he had been dismissed, the result would most likely have been different. But there was aggressive intent on both sides that day.
‘There was a lot of hype in the build-up,’ he said. ‘Everyone was up for that second Test. I think the Lions were disappointed with their lack of physical intent in the first Test, so in the second Test they were a different animal. They matched us physically and that is why it was such an epic. Obviously I added to the drama, but there was a lot of feeling in that
