A New Zealand rugby show has ranked five Springboks legends ahead of the All Blacks\u2019 clash with South Africa at Eden Park.<\/b><\/p>\n
Speaking on the Breakdown show, former All Blacks<\/a> James Wilson, Mils Muliaina, Stephen Donald and Justin Marshall hailed the impact of the South African quintet.<\/p>\n The show did not specify that it was a ranking of the greatest Springboks<\/a> of all-time, but did list lock Victor Matfield in the top position, followed by the late Joost van der Westhuizen.<\/p>\n Former flanker Schalk Burger<\/a> was ranked in third, ahead of winger Bryan Habana and prop Os du Randt.<\/p>\n Greatest Springboks<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re wondering why there aren\u2019t any of the current players, we just didn\u2019t want to give them too much confidence going into the weekend,\u201d Wilson quipped.<\/p>\n \u201cEben, we know you\u2019re in that conversation. Cheslin, we know you\u2019re in that conversation. We\u2019ll talk about some of the older guys. Bryan Habana, just a try-scoring machine.\u201d<\/p>\n Commenting on the Springboks\u2019 all-time leading try scorer, Muliaina added: \u201cAll those guys there, they were just influential in terms of the results and what they did, but not just on the field, off the field, as their leadership, but Bryan Habana, he was just a lot of gas.\u201d<\/p>\n Turning to Marshall, Wilson asked his former teammate about the late Van der Westhuizen whom he described as \u201cOne of our greatest rivals\u201d, adding, \u201che was some sort of competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, he was, and he was obviously a very proud South African and proud Springbok,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople always ask me about what it was like to play against him. At times, I wasn\u2019t playing against the best nine in the world; I was possibly playing the best rugby player in the world. And I think Antoine Dupont has got that mantle now, but he could influence a game like no other player. And he influenced people around him by the way that he played.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think of a Richie McCaw, those types of players are very rare. Feel very lucky to have played against Joost, and he will never be forgotten in the way that he played and what he gave to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Rassie Erasmus responds to the notion that the All Blacks have shielded Eden Park record from Springboks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Rassie Erasmus: Springboks \u2018won\u2019t experiment\u2019 against All Blacks with Siya Kolisi \u2018touch-and-go\u2019 for Eden Park showdown<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Schalk Burger typified what it means to be a Springbok<\/p>\n Turning the attention to Burger, Wilson said: \u201cThen there\u2019s that big man Schalk Burger. Os was probably the biggest man, but Schalk Burger was a special player. He typified exactly the physicality you expect inside a Springbok.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald, who faced off against Burger during his playing days, joined Wilson in praising the former flanker\u2019s approach to the game.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysical but so abrasive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey talk about structure these days, but it just looked like he went \u2018Right, I\u2019m just going to go do that and I\u2019m going to do it as hard as I can and as physical as I can\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cBy all accounts, he was terrible in the gym. How a man that strong and that physical but an incredible player, and to be fair, one of the best off the field too.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson concluded the discussion, saying: \u201cThere has been so many great players, and there are so many in this group right now who have had such great careers. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing them in action this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, South African newspaper Rapport ranked the 30 greatest players of the past 40 years, a list which saw Van der Westhuizen ranked second, Habana third, Du Randt fourth, Matfield fifth and Burger seventh.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Super Sport is running a poll for a Dream Boks XV, which Du Randt, Matfield and Burger have been voted into in their respective positions.<\/p>\n READ MORE: South African newspaper selects their 30 greatest <\/a>Springboks<\/a>\u00a0of the past 40 years<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Zealand rugby show has ranked five Springboks legends ahead of the All Blacks\u2019 clash with South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[225,90462,704,12,4151,33131,2196,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-390024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-home-page","9":"tag-internationals","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-rugby-championship","14":"tag-south-africa","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115130751090094362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}