Rugby World Cup: Final chances to play for the land he loves

Jacques Burger admits leaving rugby to live on his farm won't be easy and he may yet get into coaching. Photo / Getty Images

Regrets? Jacques Burger has had a few. There were the two thrilling, agonising English Premiership final defeats in 2010 and 2014, when Saracens lost leads in the dying minutes. The Heineken Cup final in 2014, when Sarries were blown away by the boot of Jonny Wilkinson. The two frustrating years with the Bulls in Pretoria, spent watching one of Super Rugby's most successful teams largely from the sidelines.

Then there is Namibia's dismal World Cup record - and maybe, just maybe, there's still time for him to do something about that. Not even Burger, his nation's greatest player, seriously believes they can beat New Zealand tomorrow. But on the eve of his final World Cup campaign, a fierce and irrepressible optimism nonetheless possesses him.

Burger is a winner through and through, but international duty has forced him to get used to losing, and sometimes by an extravagant scoreline. Yet even as a world-class flanker surrounded by eager but limited amateurs, he wouldn't swap his teammates for the world.

"At certain times it's been very tough," Burger says. "Skill-wise, a lot of the guys are up there, close to being professional. But they don't quite have that belief in themselves. Because they don't play top matches, they don't play finals in big stadiums.

"So it's been challenging, but it's also very refreshing. They don't complain. They just crack on, they just work hard. Everything they get, they're happy with it, whereas professional guys can get a bit spoiled."

In a way, Burger might be describing the Namibian character, one shaped by wide open spaces and long, slow days. "It's a very friendly, laid-back sort of country," Burger agrees. "That's why I'm so humble every time I come back, to see the guys with their eight-to-five jobs and still training as hard as they do." And it is to Namibia, to the land, that he intends to return before long.

Burger is only 32, but after a decade of thunderbolt tackles and countless knee operations, his body is beginning to fail him. Some years ago he bought a huge plot of land in Stampriet, on the cusp of the Kalahari desert - 5600ha of dusty dunes and unkempt farmland. When he finally hangs up his boots at the end of the season, this is where Burger will make his home.

Only a fortnight ago, he was back on the ranch to check progress. "It's something we've been working on for five years now. It's finally got a shape. Being back was incredible, to see where home is going to be one day. It's great to have that in the back of my mind."

At the front of his mind, meanwhile, are the All Blacks. This is the first and last time he will face them, something he describes as "a massive experience, a life experience". And yet the competitor in him - the all-action warrior who would fight to the death - is impossible to suppress.

"It'll be a great experience," he says. "But not too much respect should be given to them. If you respect them too much, you'll go into your shell. Let's say we keep them out for 10 minutes on our goal line, or we put together a couple of sets of play, or we can break the line and score a great try. And knowing you can do that against the best team in the world will be very important to us going into the [other] matches."

For this is the ultimate objective: to record Namibia's first World Cup win in their fifth tournament. They are the lowest-ranked nation in the competition, but while the All Blacks may not necessarily oblige, Tonga and Georgia provide opportunities to break their duck.

"There's not been a lot of great moments in World Cup rugby for Namibia. It's an incentive: to come here and make one special moment. One victory would be unbelievable ... we believe we can."

But can Burger, one of the great scrappers of modern rugby, really tear himself away from all this to go and live on a farm? The struggle, the journey, even the pain. "Well, I don't know. I don't want to move away from the game completely, so I'm going to try and maybe get involved in defence coaching somewhere. Go and experience something different. Maybe France. Or Italy. Or a country I've not lived in, a country that needs development. Like the United States, where the game's growing massively ... And then the farm is there. The end goal. Set up my family and live there, and hopefully be very happy."

For now, though, the farm can wait. Burger is a man with a job to do: one last chance, perhaps, to deal with unfinished business.