Burger had the first Final
In 1993 when Super Rugby had its start, Freek Burger was the top South African referee and he refereed the first Final in South Africa with a South African team playing – Transvaal playing against Auckland.
The Super 10 was a pale forerunner of the Super 14. There were two pools of five teams each. Each team played four matches and then the final was played between the winners of each pool. The finalists each played five matches. On Saturday in the Super 14 Final each team will have played 15 matches.
Burger was in Johannesburg when he got a phonecall from Louis Luyt, then the president of the Transvaal Rugby Union. Luyt told Burger that Auckland had asked to meet the referee. Burger agreed but said that he then wanted to meet both sides together – captains and coaches.
Luyt organised the meeting in the offices of the Transvaal Rugby Union, near where the lion stands. The two groups sat at the table, Sean Fitzpatrick the captain of Auckland and François Pienaar the captain of Transvaal, destined to meet again as captains at Ellis park in the Final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Luyt opt Burger in the chair and the referee asked what they wanted to talk about. He said: “Nobody said a word. There were no questions.” Everybody shook hands and pushed off.
It was a thriller of a match which Transvaal won 20-17, scoring three tries to two. Auckland came back with a great attack near the end and a Grant Fox drop just shaved the upright.
At the function afterwards Fitzpatrick said: “Before I thank anybody else, I want to thank the referee who I thought was the man of the match.”
There were no complaints that a local referee was refereeing a Final with a local referee. mind you “local” is a relative term. Burger was 1 500km from Ellis Park!
Burger believes that the best referee should referee the Final. He says: “Give the players the best referee. Kaplan is the best referee and he must referee.
“There will be pressure but a game like that will produce pressure for whoever referees. But Jonathan takes pressure well. He is the best man for the job, because he has the right temperament and the players respect him.
“Refereeing in your own country before your own crowd makes the job easier.”
Things have changed since Burger’s day. For one thing money has come in and instead of having provincial teams there are franchises which do not have the same tight-knit structures as provinces. But above all there is the money.
What was Burger paid to referee the Final in 1993? Not a cent. Lots of enjoyment but not a cent.
