The Chris Burger/Petro Jackson Players’ Fund pays homage to two young players who died playing the game they loved. In 1980, Western Province fullback Chris Burger broke his neck and died in a Currie Cup match in Bloemfontein, This led to the founding of the Chris Burger Fund by then WP captain Morne du Plessis and his teammates. Petro Jackson, a young player from Kylemore in Stellenbosch died during a match in 1989, prompting SARU to establish a similar Fund in his honour.

In 1992, the two Funds were united to form the Chris Burger/Petro Jackson Players’ Fund as it is known today.

The Fund fulfils two core objectives; firstly to assist the unfortunate victims of catastrophic/serious rugby injuries, and secondly to develop and implement initiatives that aim to educate, inform and create awareness with the purpose of making rugby safer and thereby reducing the number of injuries.

The Fund provides assistance to its recipients in the form of wheelchairs and equipment, and other comforts that seek to improve the quality of their lives.

The Fund runs the “Power of Prevention” programme through which it has established the “SpineLine”, a 24-hour emergency response service for rugby injuries, the “Rugby Medic Club”, which trains hundreds of club and secondary school medics annually and the “Coaches Logbook”, a practical aid for coaches with advice of conditioning, safety, techniques and more.

The Fund hosts an annual banquet and golf day through which it raises much needed funding for its activities. As SARU’s official Social Responsibility partner, the Fund receives a generous annual grant from the governing body.