The last time there was a rugby player of such stature from Namibia, it was still South West Africa and the man was Jan Ellis. The flame-haired flanker ran with the ball in one hand so that the other could shove aside opponents. He was not an easy man to like. Jacques Burger, on the other hand, seems eminently likeable.Ellis, dashing but dour, would have admired Burger's true grit."I don't have fear on a rugby pitch," he told The Guardian last year ahead of Namibia's World Cup match against the All Blacks.The tipsters predicted the mismatch of the tournament, with Namibia the lowest-ranked team at the World Cup against the highest-ranked. Bookmakers said there would be a difference of 77 points. The ABs won (of course) but the58-14 margin was no disgrace.Burger has now quit rugby and London for a farm in southern Namibia. In London, Burger played 114 games for Saracens over five English rugby seasons, winning the Premiership twice. He retired before the end of the season, but stayed to watch his team surprise Racing 92 in the European Cup final and to perhaps clinch the double by beating Exeter at Twickenham this Saturday in the final of the Premiership. He has led Namibia in three Rugby World Cups, from 2007 to 2015, and was judged one of the five best players at the 2011 tournament.His departure from the pitch caused barely a ripple in South Africa, which is sad because he is one of the game's finest players. Not among the greatest, but certainly one of the best because he played his heart out every time, thrived in the grafting role of a loose forward and always seemed to enjoy being on the pitch.In 10 years of top-class rugby he also carries more scars than most. He has had nine major operations in the past six years and his boxer's nose has been broken at least four times. After one knee op, he was told: "You will never play rugby again." Yet he never changed the way he played: tackling, tackling, tackling. "I don't know any other way," he said.So, what's it like to play like that? "You can't get out of bed. Everything hurts," he told The Guardian."It feels like you have been in a car accident. You tell yourself you won't be able to train the following day. Yet you always do. Rugby is a brutal game, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I love it."His other passion is Africa because it's "a perfect mix of space and wildlife".He'll have plenty of space on his 5600ha farm near the village of Stampriet, a little oasis of artesian wells off the beaten track between Luderitz and Keetmanshoop.Before he gets down to farming, there's a smaller, but higher, spot in Africa he needs to conquer. Next month he leads a team up Mount Kenya (at 5 199m just 696m shorter than Kilimanjaro). It's a fund-raising effort for the charity Spaces for Giants, which focuses on protecting elephants. There's not much room at the top of Mount Kenya, but they plan to play a game of rugby.Hopefully, there will be no kicking; it's a long way down to fetch the ball...