Good Day
For Schalke Burger the dynamic Springbok back-row forward who had it confirmed that he will set a new South African record for World Cup appearances in this weekend’s quarter-final against Wales.
His 18th appearance will take him past the mark set by John Smit his long-time team-mate and captain in the 2007 World Cup winning team and the 32-year-old’s achievement must be considered all the more remarkable because nine years have now elapsed since he suffered a neck injury which was expected, at the time, to end his career.
Having experienced such a low and then the high of being a World Cup winner in such a short time-frame, Burger is consequently particularly well placed to put this current campaign, which began with their shock defeat by Japan, but thereafter saw them sweep all others aside to finish top of Pool A, into its proper perspective.
“It’s pretty much been like my career, up and down,” he said.
“We started with the most famous loss in world rugby against Japan, after that I will admit the last two weeks have been toughest of my Springbok career. Lucky for us we turned a corner and regrouped to get a quarter-final spot.”
Bad Day
For those campaigning to make the game safer on the basis of the bald statistics relating to the number of withdrawals from squads in the course of the tournament.
There are, admittedly, some complicating elements within the figures with tournament rules and regulations having allowed for a bit more flexibility in terms of when players can be replaced and for how long. However after a significant reduction between 2007 and 2011 the instances of serious injuries appears to be on the up again.
That 2007 tournament in France represented an all-time World Cup low with 38 players having to be replaced in the course of the tournament.
That had dropped to just 21, fewer than one in every two matches, in the course of the 2011 tournament in New Zealand.
However with the ferocity of the knockout stages still to go 28 players have already been forced out of the 2015 tournament since the 31-man squads were finalised.
Officialdom sought, yesterday, to claim that it is too early to be drawing conclusions about these figures, World Rugby issuing a statement which concluded:
“Media reports are not based on a like for like comparison, which is why it is inappropriate to speculate on overall injury rates or to make assumptions as to whether Rugby World Cup 2015 is more injurious than other tournaments until a full, independent review is undertaken.
“It is also inappropriate for World Rugby to make assumptions regarding the factors behind injuries, given that overall player size has not increased since Rugby World Cup 2011 and even 2007, overall injury rates have not increased since 2002 and the nature of whether the injuries were sustained in contact or non-contact environments.”
As with the way some rugby establishment figures have recently tried to damp down the debate relating to brain injuries being caused by collisions, that reaction may generate some concern regarding the authorities’ priorities when it comes to player welfare issues.
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