Springbok Forward Falls Back

Or

Pulled the Rugby Out

Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby legend, has died of motor neurone disease at the age of 45. van der Westhuizen appeared in 89 test caps for the South African national team, scoring 38 tries – both national records at the time of his retirement. He played mostly as a scrum-half, where he was renowned for penetrating tiny gaps in the defense, his savage aggression and his heroic game-defining tackles. He was the first to participate in three Rugby World Cups, including the win in 1995 ordered by Nelson Mandela and depicted in the movie Invictus, where van der Westhuizen played a vital role in shutting down unstoppable New Zealand wing Jonah Lomu. He played in a record 111 matches for the Springboks, captaining 10 times and scoring 190 points, and was on the team that won South Africa's first Tri-Nations title in 1998. With the local Blue Bulls from 1993 to 2003, he won two domestic Currie Cup trophies in 1998 and 2002. For this bizarre set of accomplishments, he was inducted into the International and World Rugby Halls of Fame, because apparently these needed to be separate things.