South African Schalk Burger has put pen to paper on a
two-year deal with English champions Saracens on Monday.
The World cup winner and former player of the year will
officially turn out at the Allianz Park next season after his spells with Super
Rugby Province Stormers and Japanese club Suntory Sungoliath.
The 32-year old flanker played a pivotal role at last year’s
World cup where South Africa got to the semi finals and has featured 86 times
for his country.
"I'm delighted to be joining Saracens. I'm extremely
excited to have the opportunity to play in both the Premiership and European
Cup - two of the leading competitions in world rugby - for such a special
club," Burger told Saracens' website.
"It's an exciting challenge for me and my family and
hopefully I can add a lot of value on and off the field to an already
successful group of players and coaches."
The arrival of Burger will serve as a great addition to the
Saracens who have been looking to improve on the squad following the departure
of Jacques Burger and Ernst Jourbet.
The versatile player possesses the record for the most
accumulated and most tries scored by any Springbok flanker and he is
comfortable across the back row.
The game plan of the Springbok was built around him during
the last World cup where he served as a first receiver, carrying out and
clearing out rucks and feeding the balls to the fly-half and wings.
He had previously
struggled with knee and neck injuries. He once required surgery to correct
pressure on a nerve which eventually resulted in contraction of a hospital bug
that led to meningitis.
Director of rugby Mark McCall insists Saracens, have signed one of the
sport's outstanding players."Schalk is a Springbok legend and will add a huge amount of experience and quality to our young English forwards," McCall said.
"We have always talked about having the right blend of experience and youth in our squad, so to be able to add one of the world's finest players to the group is extremely exciting news."
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