Schalk Burger claims Australia and New Zealand ‘missing us’ after ruining ‘greatest comp’
All Blacks taking on the Wallabies and Springboks legend Schalk Burger.
Former Springboks flanker Schalk Burger believes that South Africa’s alignment with the northern hemisphere has benefited them and, in contrast, harmed their Rugby Championship rivals.
After being ousted from Super Rugby, SA Rugby decided to shift their attentions to Europe with the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers joining the PRO14 to become the United Rugby Championship.
Despite some initial reservations, it is a competition that is growing in popularity and status, while it has not had a detrimental impact on the Springboks.
The same could not be said of Australia and New Zealand, with many trans-Tasman observers complaining that South Africa’s exit has been damaging.
South Africa’s style of play
“I think with the crop of players we’ve got in South Africa, it suits what we’ve got here. We’ve now got direct access to see all our players up north,” Burger said on the Boks Office podcast.
“We see them play because we know how difficult it is for Australian players to keep track of South African players.
“Most of them wouldn’t have seen Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] play a game, that would have been their introduction to him, and it’s the same for us. We look at the Australian and New Zealand sides and we don’t spend a lot of time watching them.
“They are missing us, we bring a different style. If everyone plays the same style, it’s quite easy to get caught up in your own little pathway.
“When they came to South Africa, it was a good test for all of them because we favour the scrum and the maul, and favour the physical part of the game so much.”
Super Rugby was once considered the best non-international competition in the world, but it has gradually lost its lustre.
Burger felt that it was a mistake to expand it to 18 teams, which included sides from Japan and Argentina.
‘The ultimate’
“The greatest comp I ever played in was Super 12, even 14 and 15. We started in Feb and finished before June, that was for me the ultimate,” the ex-Springboks back-row said.
“After that when it went to Super 18 where we played either side of the June break, I think we lost it.
“Then all of a sudden we played within conferences so we played more double rounds of games against the South African sides, but part of the lure of the whole comp was playing a round robin.
“Because of that the Currie Cup then got a second chance at life when all of us came back for the last five weeks.
“We played the last two league games and then the semi-final and final before we went to November. The Currie Cup then still had proper big finals. When we sold ourselves to the Super 18 we killed the Currie Cup.”
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