No Schalk for Boks
It wasn't the way he would've wanted to end his career at Newlands, but Schalk Burger still has hope for the future of the Stormers.
|||It wasn’t the way he would’ve wanted to end his career at Newlands, but Schalk Burger still has hope for the future of the Stormers.
The 33-year-old loose forward called time on his Super Rugby career with a demoralising 60-21 destruction by the Chiefs in the last quarter-final.
Many of the nearly 29 000 spectators left with about 15 minutes to go as the Chiefs piled on the points in the last quarter, and it was a tragic end to Burger’s 13 years of senior rugby at the famous old ground.
But the fact that the Stormers won Africa Conference 1 makes Burger believe that they can progress further next year, when they will face the New Zealand teams in the league phase.
“Of course it hurts, but you’ve got to have perspective. This team came a long way this year – we started off on a journey, young side, and we did remarkably well to get into a quarter-final. Unfortunately for us it just didn’t work, and the challenge for this group is to stay true to their culture and everyone must have some introspection and improve,” the captain said.
“We’ve got to strive to become a better team. Fleckie and the management team did remarkably well as a lot of people at the beginning of the year didn’t give us much chance. But we were comfortably winners of the conference.
“The Chiefs got a certain style which all the Kiwi sides and the All Blacks have, it’s quite difficult to counter. Next year will be positive for us to play against them. The Lions had a bad loss to the Highlanders and then beat the Chiefs the next week in New Zealand.
“Mike Tyson said you can prep for a fight, but what are you going to do when you get punched in the face? And we took a few punches early on and it was quite difficult to come back from that.”
Burger will join Saracens in England on a two-year contract in a few weeks’ time, and he said he was looking forward to experiencing the “family culture” prevalent at the club where there are a number of South Africans involved.
But asked if he will still be available for the Springboks, the 86-cap Burger said: “For the moment I’m going to go Saracens, and that’s my commitment at the moment. So, no.”
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