A player who died for the game
I was at home when an uncle phoned with the news that Western Province fullback Chris Burger had died, a day after his neck was broken in a Currie Cup match against Free State in Bloemfontein.
Three days earlier, a Free State and former Springbok prop called Rampie Stander had died of natural causes. Before the fateful match on August 30, Burger had stood with the other 29 players observing a minute's silence.
Stander's death had been sad, but for me, 13 at the time, it was nowhere near as shocking as Burger's - probably because Burger had been one of my heroes; he played for my club Villagers and in 1980 he received regular call-ups to WP.
He was as versatile as they come. He was at flyhalf the first time I saw him, swinging the ball down the line to team-mates like Springbok centre Peter Whipp, or punting perfectly placed cross-kicks for his wings to chase.
As a centre he sent Naas Botha off the field mid-match after concussing him with a late tackle in a 1979 Currie Cup match at Newlands, narrowly won by WP.
As a wing, playing opposite a young Carel du Plessis, he scored two tries against Maties to lead Villagers to the national club championship title in 1980.
As a fullback he died saving a try on his own goalline, his neck breaking when the maul that had formed around him collapsed. But he couldn't save the match - Free State, playing their hearts out for Stander, won 7-6.
Burger's illegal tackle on Botha seemed out of character for a player I always viewed as clean; a man who responded to the banter of spectators with a smile and a wink. Indeed, former WP team-mates Boland Coetzee and Robbie Blair remember him as a gentleman.
Botha couldn't recall the late tackle when I phoned to ask him about it yesterday. Not surprising, perhaps, considering he had no memory of it then either, according to a newspaper two days after the incident.
Burger tended to be injury-prone - he himself left the field during that epic WP vs Northern Transvaal encounter - but that was partly the result of his never-say-die commitment.
In one club match he chased nippy scrumhalf Tjoppie Vorster the full length of the field - neither player had heard the referee blow his whistle for an earlier infringement - and tackled the diminutive No9 in the corner, injuring himself for the rest of the 1979 season.
He may have been an amateur player, but Burger's heart was as big as any you might find among top-paid athletes today. It is apt that his name lives on in the Chris Burger/Petro Jackson fund for injured rugby players.
Maybe his story needs to be spread beyond rugby, and South Africa's borders. Some Pakistani players, if recent claims of match-fixing are true, have no idea about taking pride in representing your country, let alone your club or province, like Burger. If guilty, they should be banned for life. It seems they sold their souls for money; Burger sacrificed his for rugby.