Schalke Burger is one of the greatest players to have been produced by the most rugby-obsessed community in the world, a World Cup winner who has a record of having been on the winning side in more than every two Test matches he has played in the course of a 12 year, 84 match career.

Ahead of his side’s World Cup semi-final against New Zealand, then, that only made the following quote all the more sobering.

“I think Richie (McCaw) has won more tests than I have played in so we can’t really compare,” he said of his rivalry with his opposite number.

The figures were worth a double check and only underlined Burger’s point since the All Black captain is, astonishingly, closing in on having won 50 more games than Burger has played. He has been on the winning side 129 times in 146 Test appearances. Only Irishman Brian O’Driscoll (141), Australian George Gregan (139) and compatriot Keven Mealamu (130) have played more often than McCaw has won.

“There have been a fair few contests and unfortunately I have been on the losing end most of the time,” Burger also acknowledged, then.

“Hopefully we can get a win over them tomorrow and it will give me some bragging rights for future days to come because it will be the last time we’ll play against each other. It’s almost like golfers trying to compare to Tiger Woods. It’s pretty tough.”

His good-natured demeanour as he says so is that someone who gives his all in self-sacrificial style every time he pulls on a Springbok jersey but learned early in his career and had a recent reminder that it is a privilege simply to be able to play in such matches. This blonde-haired bear suffered a career-threatening neck injury just a couple of years after arriving on the international scene, while two years ago he had an even more serious health scare when he contracted meningitis.

In many ways that made him the ideal man to have in the camp come the mere matter of a sporting crisis that is thought to have come close to bringing about summary dismissal for head coach Heyneke Meyer and he is clearly revelling in every moment.

"All the senior players have put their hands up. On my own form, I'm just enjoying my rugby. A couple of years ago there was no chance of me getting back here so it's lovely to get another chance to play,” said Burger.

"I think we have got a nice balance in our team. We have got a couple of old hands with thinning hair sitting up here and we’ve got a couple of youngsters and we draw from the energy and if we as the old guard are doing their job all they have to worry about is playing rugby and doing what they’re good at. We’ve got that right the last couple of weeks. Obviously you want to take as much pressure off them, so decision making we’re obviously in charge of that."

It is, of course, hard to see how even the Springbok spirit can subdue this rampant All Black side on the evidence of the Kiwis’ thrashing of France last weekend, but Burger is determined to make to the most of this final battle with the player who is not just New Zealand’s greatest ever, but must probably be considered the best ever to have played the sport.

"On the field we are equals,” he said of McCaw.

“We’ve played against each other a lot and we play a bit of a different style but both of us have a massive work-rate so we find each other at the, bottom of the rucks or tackling or carrying the ball a hell of a lot. So I always try to make a bit of a chat on the field… it's pretty difficult with Richie, but afterwards we will have a beer and chat about times gone by."