Renowned rugby hard man and Springbok legend Schalk Burger has revealed Henry Tuilagi was the scariest thing he'd ever seen on a rugby field.
He revealed the World Cup-winning South African team were spooked by the sight of the 20st giant during a match in 2007.
Led by iconic skipper John Smit, the Boks faced Samoa in the opening round of World Cup pool fixtures at the Parc des Princes.
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Burger's team would go on to secure a quite convincing 59-7 victory, but this didn't come without some serious bruising from 20 stone back-row Tuilagi.
The Tuilagi family are incredibly well known in the rugby world. Manu has hit the heights with the British and Irish Lions, England and Leicester. Then there's Alesana, Freddie, Anitelea and Sanele Vavae who have all played to a high level.
Henry, who's played for Leicester, Perpignan and Samoa, was the biggest of them all.
"To this day, probably the most scary [he is] thing I've ever seen on a rugby field!" said Burger, in an interview with RugbyPass .
"I remember Jacque Fourie and Victor Matfield coming and saying 'Listen here, there is this bloke Henry Tuilagi, he is absolutely massive. I have just seen him, he weighs like 130kgs, he’s 6ft 2in but he is the biggest thing I have ever seen'
"So, me and Victor, we're standing up (in the tunnel), in World Cups you sort of line up and walk out, and in our case the trophy was there. Playing at the old Parc des Princes.
"The South Africans lined up one to 23 so Victor looks back at me and says, ‘Nah, he is not that big’. For some reason, the Samoan line was a bit quicker than we were walking and it was the little brother Alesana Tuilagi walking out.
"All I could see was Victor just panicking. He was looking back and going, ‘Oh, where the hell is this number eight?!’
"Then it’s probably 10 or 15 minutes into this game, it’s halfway and it’s a shortened lineout, five-man, and I'm standing at the back, it was Danie Rossouw and me. We used to defend like up and in a fair bit, the Boks.
"We lined up alright but this was ridiculous because I looked to the right and Butch James was almost on the 15 on the opposite side of the field and he looked at me and said, ‘That’s not mine. There is absolutely no chance’.
"It’s the first time everyone had seen Henry Tuilagi standing midway between the 22 and their own try line.
"And he was the lineout trigger so when he got to full pace just on the other side of the 22, the ball came and the next moment there was a gap for him to run through.
“I hoped to God that he was running past Butchie but he just sort of looked at me and was coming straight at me. So I actually put a decent shot at him from the side.
"As I swung around I was now basically riding on his back like a bull. He is carrying me and I can see Danie Rossouw sitting down on the bottom. Danie's is a huge man, he's 124kgs, and I was on the back of Henry going over Danie riding off the back of him. It was just amazing."
During the post-game beers, Springbok Os du Randt said that never in his life had he been honest enough to say he was scared, but if someone asked him after 20 minutes of that game if he was scared, he would have said yes.
The Tuilagi legacy continues however, Henry's son Posolo got his Top 14 debut recently whilst playing for Perpignan.
This isn't a typo - he is 145KG (22 stone 11 lbs) at 18-years-old, no DNA test needed there!
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