Joost Van Der Westhuizen

Joost van der Westhuizen (born 20 February 1971) is a former South African rugby union footballer who was the Springboks' first choice scrum-half in the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s. He was capped 89 times for the Springboks and scored 38 tries. He retired as the most capped Springbok of all time, a record since broken by Percy Montgomery at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and held the record for the most test tries by a South African player, until it was broken at the 2011 Rugby World Cup by Bryan Habana. His career test try tally of 38 makes him the scrum-half with the most tries in Test Rugby. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest half-backs of all time, as evidenced by his presence in the 2007 induction class of the International Rugby Hall of Fame.

With his uncharacteristically big build for a scrum-half, he was known as an aggressive and fast runner and ferocious defender. Van der Westhuizen was best suited to a very physical type of game, often mixing it up with the forwards. He enjoyed his greatest success when playing alongside Chester Williams and the great fullback, Andre Joubert, especially when they attacked at pace around the blind side of the scrum.

He played in the 1995 and 1999 Rugby World Cups. In the former he defended heroically, famously tackling New Zealand's giant wing Jonah Lomu, amongst others leading to the Springbok World Cup victory. Van der Westhuizen's strengths as a rugby player lay in his dangerous ability to 'snipe' around the fringes of rucks, often leading to tries, as well as his fearless defence. Van der Westhuizen was also an inspirational player and captain, a talismanic figure in many successful Springbok sides. Van der Westhuizen played in the 2003 Rugby World Cup before eventually retiring from international rugby, having won every tournament trophy available to a South African rugby player aside from the Super 12 or a series victory over a British and Irish Lions touring team. His honours include the Currie Cup twice (1998 & 2002), a Tri-Nations title (1998) and the World Cup (1995). In July 2004 he joined Supersport as a commentator. His contract with the channel was later terminated.

On 12 May 2011, Van der Westhuizen's publicist announced that he had a muscle related neural disease, believed to be a form of motor neurone disease. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States have since confirmed that the former Springbok captain has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and has only an 80% chance of living for two to five years from diagnosis.