He was going to fight Schalk Burger...
I grew up in Johannesburg and went to high school in the late 90s. It was a small Catholic school down the road from Linden Hoërskool, where current Lions and Springboks scrumhalf, Morne van den Berg, went to school. I was the only kid from an Afrikaans background that I knew of—and probably the only Afrikaans Catholic to have ever existed on the planet. But that’s a story for another day.As with most people, I formed a close group of friends (who I’m still in touch with today), and we would often sit on the same wooden benches at break time talking rubbish. One of our favourite topics was making up ridiculous fight scenarios and arguing about who would win—like Mike Tyson with a baseball bat versus 24 tigers. Sometimes, we would include our friend Luca in the equation.You see, Luca was a ninja…At least, Luca wished he was a ninja. Ever since he was a young child, he was obsessed with ninjas and martial arts like karate, judo, and kung fu. If my memory serves me correctly, he was the only kid I knew who actually had ninja stars and nunchucks. Like I said, obsessed. Because of his enthusiasm for martial arts, we would sometimes throw him into these imagined fight scenarios as the protagonist.Luca, of course, would insist he would win any contest because he was a trained killer—even when we asked him if he would win in a fight between him and Schalk Burger…Fast-forward to December 2007 in Hermanus. My friends and I were on holiday, having our last hoorah before we all left the country. A couple of the boys were heading to the United Kingdom in early 2008 and, little did I know at the time, I’d be moving to Australia by July.As you can imagine, we drank a lot of beers…One night, we went out to a little bar by the beach. Luca and I walked in, went straight to the bar, and ordered some drinks. While we were standing there waiting, I said to Luca, “Do you remember that time you said you’d win in a fight against Schalk Burger?”Luca replied, “Yes.”“Do you still think you’d win?”Without blinking, Luca said, “Of course.”“Well, here’s your chance… because that’s Schalk Burger standing next to you.”Luca turned around, took one look at Schalk Burger, and said, “I can’t fight that guy. He hasn’t done anything to me.”You see, Luca had no idea who Schalk Burger was…If you enjoyed this story, it’s from my weekly newsletter — Aussieboks Insiders.Get the next one in your inbox 👇