'We must swallow up death in victory'

In just one season Chris Burger helped Villagers to win the SA Club Championship and helped arch-rivals Maties lift the Western Province league title.

Burger scored 10 of Villagers' points, including two tries, in their 14-3 victory over Stellenbosch University in the all-Cape final of the national club tournament in Durban on Easter Monday of 1980.

But when the premier domestic competition kicked off in Cape Town a few weeks later, both national finalists got off to poor starts. Villagers lost to newly promoted Defence and Maties were beaten by Bellville.

Villagers dropped out of contention pretty quickly, hammered 51-10 by Maties.

But Bellville, after losing one match along the way, went into the final stretch, sharing top spot on the log with Stellenbosch.

Their only possible hurdle to sharing the spoils was Villagers.

On a miserably wet winter's afternoon at Newlands, Burger doused their title ambitions, slotting two kicks to defeat Bellville 6-0 and make Maties winners of the league, known then as the Grand Challenge.

Midway through the 1980 season, the Grand Challenge ended and was replaced by the Town Challenge, a competition of lower standing, but just as tough.

This is what Villagers and Bellville were playing for when they met again, this time on a clear afternoon at Newlands on Saturday August 30.

On this occasion, however, Burger wasn't there - he was in Bloemfontein on Western Province duty.

That was a bumper weekend of rugby, with more club matches on the Monday, a public holiday.

The Villagers-Bellville contest was Saturday's main game and it was a nail-biter.

With time running out and trailing by a small margin - 12-14, if I remember correctly - Villagers camped deep in the Bellville half.

They threw everything they had, but they kept falling one pass short of crossing the line.

Bellville held out to avenge their previous defeat, and I left thinking that just one Chris Burger penalty would have staved off defeat.

When I got home I learned that WP had lost 6-7 to Free State in their Currie Cup showdown, and that Burger had been seriously injured when a loose scrum collapsed.

His neck had been broken, and he died the following morning.

Burger's death dominated Cape Town newspapers on Monday, the news and sports pages filled with stories and photographs, including one of the dying Burger lying helplessly on his stomach soon after the tragedy.

At Newlands that Monday afternoon the Villagers and Defence players and the spectators honoured Burger with a minute's silence.

For the second time in 48 hours Villagers again found themselves in a tough contest, and in the second half they were trailing once again.

But this time they fought back to claim victory. I don't recall the scoreline, just that Villagers won, playing their hearts out for their dead teammate.

Orlando Pirates, in their first game back after Senzo Meyiwa's murder, were beaten 0-2 by Supersport United at the weekend.

Perhaps Bucs should have gone ahead with the Soweto derby match against Kaizer Chiefs that first Saturday after the goalkeeper's death.

Bafana Bafana go into their first match without their skipper at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday.

Qualifying for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations will be the greatest tribute they can offer Meyiwa.

In those 90 minutes against Sudan they must honour Meyiwa, not mourn him.