RUCK previously reported<\/a>, the Northampton star has defended his celebrations and outspoken personality.<\/p>\n“I’m not going to change wherever I go,” Pollock insisted.<\/p>\n
With the 2027 Rugby World Cup approaching, the youngster will hope his performances continue to do the talking.<\/p>\n
Schalk Burger: Five facts about the Springboks legend<\/p>\n
Schalk Burger is one of South Africa’s greatest rugby players.<\/p>\n
The former flanker won the Rugby World Cup and became a key man for the Springboks.<\/p>\n
He was known for his hard tackles, strong runs and love of the game.<\/p>\n
Here are five facts about the South Africa great.<\/p>\n
1. He won the 2007 Rugby World Cup<\/p>\n
Burger helped South Africa win the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France.<\/p>\n
The Springboks beat England 15-6 in the final in Paris.<\/p>\n
It was South Africa’s second World Cup title.<\/p>\n
2. He played 86 Tests for South Africa<\/p>\n
Burger made his Springboks debut against Georgia in 2003.<\/p>\n
He went on to win 86 caps and scored 16 tries.<\/p>\n
His last Test came against Japan in 2015.<\/p>\n
3. He was named the world’s best player<\/p>\n
Burger won the World Rugby Player of the Year award in 2004.<\/p>\n
He was just 21 at the time.<\/p>\n
The award came after a superb year for South Africa.<\/p>\n
4. He survived a life-threatening illness<\/p>\n
In 2013, Burger fell seriously ill with bacterial meningitis.<\/p>\n
He spent weeks in hospital and feared he might never play again.<\/p>\n
But he fought back and returned to Test rugby in 2014.<\/p>\n
He even played at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
5. His father also played for South Africa<\/p>\n
Rugby runs in the Burger family.<\/p>\n
His father, Schalk Burger Sr, played six Tests for the Springboks.<\/p>\n
Burger followed in his father’s footsteps and went on to become one of South Africa’s most famous players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks legend Schalk Burger has offered a far more positive assessment of Henry Pollock, having previously mocked the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[256414,5903,118921,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-796824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-england-rugby-news","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}