When Victor Matfield helped South Africa win the World Rugby Classic last year, no one except those closest to him knew what was coming.

Bermuda was, the legendary Springbok lock has now revealed, the first step towards a high-profile international comeback.

Matfield, 37, had done it all by the time he took his creaking body out of the game in 2011.

But two years away from the sharp end left the lineout master yearning for more.

After passing his initial test on North Field, the National Sports Centre, by beating the Classic Lions in the final, the 2007 World Cup winner rejoined Blue Bulls, the Pretoria-based Super 15 club, after a spell on their coaching staff.

Now the grand plan, which started in Devonshire, is almost at its end game.

Matfield, having become South Africa’s most capped player, will take on England at Twickenham tomorrow as he prepares for his revised finale — the 2015 World Cup in England. This year’s team of Classic Springboks, though, have not forgotten him.

“I got a call from the guys at the airport [Sunday],” he told The Daily Mail. “The South African boys who were on their way there for this year’s tournament. They were missing me!”

He added: “I went to Bermuda at the end of last year. By then I actually knew that I was going to play again so I almost felt like I would go there and see if my body was feeling right for it.

“I had been mountain-biking quite a bit so I had gone down to 99kg and I was skinny.

“I went over and it was much slower, but it was pretty physical because most of the boys are 10-15kgs heavier than they should be!

“So the collisions were still really tough and it was just good to get back into it, see how my body felt and it felt alright.

“What was nice was that I was the only guy there who was really in shape.

“All the other guys would have stints of about 20 minutes and come off, but I would play every minute of every game.

“There were a couple of beers after each game – and before each game too! We won the tournament, which made it even better.”

Matfield even believes his two-year hiatus has helped get his body in better shape.

“I am definitely in much better nick than I was in 2011. I couldn’t get up in the mornings and I couldn’t walk down my stairs at home — I had to hold on.

“I think the two-year break helped my body a lot. Before that, I was just buggered! My body had seized up.”