Passionate Burger’s vision for Namibian rugby

Jacques Burger, Namibia’s new director of rugby, hopes to instill the values and traits that made him one of the world’s greatest players of his generation into management as he leads Namibian rugby into a new era.

Burger on Tuesday met members of the media where he set out his goals in a broad-ranging interview.

He highlighted values such as passion, trust, hard work, honesty, transparency, care and national pride.

With Namibia failing to win the Africa Cup for the first time in a decade earlier this year, their proud record of seven successive World Cup appearances is now under threat as nations like Zimbabwe, Kenya and even Algeria have emerged as strong contenders to win next year’s Africa Cup and qualify for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Burger said Namibian rugby had stagnated while other African nations are growing stronger, and that it will be Namibia’s toughest qualifying campaign yet.

“At the Africa Cup we saw that we are falling behind and a lot of African teams are stepping up, like Zimbabwe. They’ve shown the people outside, their foreign-based players, listen we’ve got a shot.

“They’ve smelled blood in the water and now want to put Namibia away. But it’s not just Zimbabwe, there’s Kenya who can hurt you on an off day – they can punish you because they have great athletes.

“The only downfall for African rugby over the years was their game management. They’ve got incredible athletes with pace and power.

“They can play rugby, but their game management, and how they deal with pressure, the way they get out of certain situations, that’s how we always managed to keep them at bay,” he said.

CLEAN SLATE

Burger said he was starting on a clean slate and that building a relationship of trust with the players was of paramount importance.

“I think something we’ve neglected over the years is how important our players are to us. That relationship between us and our players is something we have been working on extremely hard since I’ve started.

“Basically explaining to them this is our plan forward and that we put our trust in them . . .

“We had a saying at Saracens . . . we’re going to treat you extremely well and in return we want you to work unbelievably hard. That was set in stone, that was the only thing: You look after them and they’ll give you the returns . . .

“It doesn’t matter how good the opponents are, they will need to play their hearts out to finish us on the rugby pitch,” he said.

RESTORING TRUST

Burger acknowledged that they would need to build trust between themselves and their sponsors and supporters.

“We’ve burnt a couple of bridges in the past if we are honest, and we’ve lost a lot of trust, so we need to be transparent in what we do.

“People need to see that something is actually happening, and that they are getting their money’s worth. We need to be honest and transparent and that relationship that we want to build with the players we need to build with our sponsors and supporters as well, and if we can accomplish that I think people will get on board.

“And obviously, the passion we have for the game and this country of ours.”

Burger called on all Namibians to support Namibian rugby.

“A lot of people sit on the outside and I was one of them, saying it’s a mess, I don’t want to get involved, but I said to myself, if you keep standing on the outside and you are not willing to get involved, then you won’t make any change.

“If everybody in this country can inspire them and get them passionate about us, we can make this a huge success.”

“I want to see Namibian youngsters wearing Namibian shirts, saying I want to play for Namibia, I’m extremely proud to be Namibian, and coming out on Saturdays.

“I want to see the stands full of Namibian supporters with the braaivleis in the background, you can smell it, there are good spirits all around and there’s a great atmosphere – those are the things I dream about, and I’m very excited about that challenge and to get it done,” he said.

Burger, who farms in southern Namibia, said there were a lot of similarities between farming and rugby.

“It’s very similar to rugby in the sense that it keeps you humble. Whenever you think you are bigger than the game or bigger than someone else, you get knocked down and that’s the same with farming . . .

“Rugby . . . is one of the toughest games in the world, and if you are out there and you think you are doing it on your own, then you are going to make a big mistake and you are going to learn a few lessons,

“I’ve learnt that through farming and through rugby. I’m used to tough times, but every time, somehow, you pick yourself up and dust yourself off and you’re back in the game.”