Today in History: Springbok legend Joost van der Westhuizen was born
He died at his home in Johannesburg, surrounded by his family, on Monday, 6 February 2017, at the age of 45.
On this day in 1971, late Springbok scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen was born in Pretoria. He went on to become a legend on the rugby field.
Joost attended Hoërskool FH Odendaal and the University of Pretoria, where he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He showed great promise on the rugby field from a young age, and played for the Baby Boks in 1992.
He spent his entire provincial career with the Blue Bulls, from 1993 until 2003, when he officially retired from playing rugby. He played Super 12 for Northern Transvaal (later renamed the Bulls) from the competition’s inception in 1996 until his retirement in 2003.
His first international cap came only a year after his Baby Boks stint, at the age of 22, against Argentina in Buenos Aires on the 1993 tour. Joost was also an integral part of the Springboks team that defied all the odds on their way to winning the 1995 IRB Rugby World Cup right here on South African soil.
In 1997, he captained South Africa’s Sevens team to the final at the 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong, where they were beaten by Fiji. He was also a part of the first Springboks team to win the Tri-Nations tournament (now Rugby Championship) in 1998, and would eventually captain the national side in 1999, when South Africa finished third at the World Cup. When he ran out onto the pitch for South Africa in the 2003 World Cup, he became the first Springbok to play in three editions of the tournament.
In November 2003, Joost retired from international rugby, at which point he was South Africa’s record test cap holder with 89 caps, and record test try scorer with 38 test tries. He had made a total of 111 appearances for South Africa, having captained them in ten tests, and scoring 190 test points for his country.
In 2011, it was announced that Joost had motor neuron disease. He eventually became confined to a wheelchair and experienced speech problems, yet still raised awareness about the disease through his charity, the J9 Foundation. On 4 February 2017, he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Fourways Life Hospital in Johannesburg where he was placed on a ventilator. He died at his home in Johannesburg, surrounded by his family, on Monday, 6 February 2017, at the age of 45.
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