Joost will be remembered as one of the greatest rugby legends
Despite his difficult last years Joost van der Westhuizen will ultimately be remembered as one of the greatest rugby legends of all time.
It is said that the Blue Bulls have had an outstanding legend in every era of their existence since 1938.
First there was Hansie Brewis and then the original Blue Bull, Louis Schmidt. Then followed the seventies, eighties and nineties of the last century.
In each of these decades there was an outstanding hero.
The interesting of these three is that you only need to mention their first names, and the faithful fans will know who you’re talking about.
They were Frik, Naas and Joost…
Frik du Preez became the South African Rugby Player of the 20th century. Naas Botha became the first real South African sporting superstar.
And then came the brilliant scrumhalf who ultimately would die tragically just two weeks before his 46th birthday.
In 1987, the underrated first team of Hoërskool FH Odendaal in the North East of Pretoria hit schoolboy rugby like a fresh breeze with their spectacular game.
This team, loaded with ordinary boys from a middle class background, against all odds beat all the big teams in the erstwhile Administrators Cup competition.
They reached the final of this prestigious competition and lost narrowly in the final against Hugenote in Springs.
From that team of FH Odendaal emerged one of the greatest rugby legends in the history of the game in South Africa.
Joost Heystek van der Westhuizen played for the Blue Bulls in the Craven Week that year as well as the next year when he was in matric.
In 1990, he began his studies at the University of Pretoria but it is once again on the rugby field where he made a name for himself.
He played for Tukkies’ first team before his 20th birthday, while he also represented the Blue Bulls’ u.20 team for two consecutive years.
In 1992, he made his debut for the Northern Transvaal senior team as Naas Botha’s scrumhalf in this legend’s final season.
That same year he played for the Junior Springboks and in 1993 the lanky scrumhalf made his test debut for the Springboks against Argentina in a test in Buenos Aires.
He would eventually continue to play in 89 test matches in which he scored 38 tries. Both of these statistics were national records for many years.
Today he is still the sixth most cap Springbok and only Bryan Habana scored more tries than him.
To mention highlights of Van der Westhuizen’s illustrious career is nearly impossible because there were so many. He was a nominee for the prestigious SA Rugby Player of the Year Award six times during his career, in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999, while he was also a Young Player of the Year nominee in 1992.
However, many fans will remember the way he tackled the monster wing, Jonah Lomu, in the Word Cup final of 1995, in which he and his teammates reached immortal fame by winning against New Zealand.
Then there was the Currie Cup final of 1998, in which Joost and a group of underrated teammates brought this coveted trophy back to Loftus Versfeld after seven lean years for the faithful supporters at Loftus.
He will also be remembered as a leader of men, who led both the Springboks and the Bulls by example.
Despite huge offers from across South Africa and the world, Van der Westhuizen remained faithful to the Bulls until the end of his long career, even though his career coincided with a very difficult era in which few trophies were won by the men in Blue.
After his career, he was one of the most popular rugby analysts on the SuperSport panel.
Along with another former Springbok captain, Wynand Claassen, he was responsible for the resurgence of the University of Pretoria as a champion team, after the Tuks club went through is a very difficult period since the game became professional.
In the coming years, all the negative news about Van der Westhuizen’ personal life after his rugby career will disappear into oblivion.
He will, however, be remembered forever as one of Loftus’s biggest legends and a Springbok superstar.
He was the boy from a middle-class background in Pretoria who grabbed the imagination of rugby fans around the world with its staggering talent, courage, skill and sheer brilliance on the field.
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