2. Schalk Burger \u2013 South Africa<\/p>\n
Position:\u00a0Flanker
Caps:\u00a086
Test career:\u00a02003\u20132015<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just kept coming for me\u201d<\/p>\n
Schalk Burger\u2019s relentless physicality left a lasting impression on both All Blacks legends.<\/p>\n
McCaw said:\u00a0\u201cYou can come up against another tough team but never feel like you have had a tough match against your opposite. But with Burger you knew where they are going to be and how hard they play near the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter remembered regularly finding himself in the Springbok flanker\u2019s sights.<\/p>\n
Carter said:\u00a0\u201cI kept looking at my All Black jersey wondering if I had a target like in the middle of the jersey or something because he kept coming for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added:\u00a0\u201cHe just kept going. He didn\u2019t stop. He was physical and just his leg drive was incredible. A real competitor and absolute top bloke off the field as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burger was named World Rugby Player of the Year in 2004 and later helped South Africa win the 2007 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
His remarkable career also included a comeback from a life-threatening illness before returning to international rugby.<\/p>\n
1. George Smith \u2013 Australia<\/p>\n
Position:\u00a0Flanker
Caps:\u00a0111
Test career:\u00a02000\u20132013<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to hate playing this guy\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking top spot is Wallabies breakdown master George Smith.<\/p>\n
McCaw first encountered Smith before either had established themselves as Test rugby superstars \u2013 and immediately realised just how good the Australian was.<\/p>\n
McCaw said:\u00a0\u201cSmith was always pretty tough. I remember playing him when I was in the under 19s against Australia and remember then thinking just what a good player he is. I\u2019ve never seen a guy as gifted in all facets of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter was even more succinct.<\/p>\n
Carter said:\u00a0\u201cI used to hate playing this guy because he was so bloody good. A true legend of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith earned 111 Test caps during an extraordinary international career and became one of the defining opensides of his generation.<\/p>\n
His ability over the ball was legendary, but it was his complete skillset \u2013 carrying, passing, tackling and reading the game \u2013 that separated him from many of his contemporaries.<\/p>\n
He was twice awarded the John Eales Medal as Australia\u2019s outstanding international player.<\/p>\n
Dan Carter and Richie McCaw both agreed on the greatest number 10 in rugby history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2. Schalk Burger \u2013 South Africa Position:\u00a0FlankerCaps:\u00a086Test career:\u00a02003\u20132015 \u201cHe just kept coming for me\u201d Schalk Burger\u2019s relentless physicality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-595666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}