Joost do it

South African rugby’s staggering rate of attrition is indicated by the fact that only three members of the 30-man squad who took part in the 1999 Rugby World Cup have survived to go to RWC 2003.

They are Joost van der Westhuizen, Stefan Terblanche and Breyton Paulse.

Only seven other Springboks have made it to two World Cups – Mark Andrews, Os du Randt, Ruben Kruger, Krynauw Otto, Chris Rossouw, André Venter and Naka Drotske.

Only one has made it to three – Joost van der Westhuizen.

Van der Westhuizen heads for Perth in Australia with 85 test caps and 35 tries to his credit. He is slower now. Not as explosive. He links more and where he once blazed a trail in front of his forwards he now drives them from the back.

He remains the one South African player who worries opposition coaches; who troubles opposition defenders; who can turn a test match on its head whether by scoring a sniping try, bringing off a vital tackle or merely by galvanising his teammates with his compelling will to win.

We will never forget Joel Stransky’s dropped goal in the 12th minute of extra time that gave South Africa victory in the 1995 Final, but perhaps the real turning point of the game came a lot earlier. In fact, in the 12th minute.

That was when the moment all South Africa feared arrived as the All Blacks brought Jonah Lomu charging in-field off the left-wing to take a short pass close to the forwards.

The black juggernaut hit the ball in the channel and seemed unstoppable. Surely he was going to score at the posts. But there was one green-clad figure left. No9 on his back. He stood unflinchingly right in the path of the giant All Black and then he dipped down, head-on, clamped a steely grip around those great churning legs and down went Lomu.

That was the moment the World Cup was won. You could sense South Africa getting stronger; the All Blacks beginning to doubt themselves.

Joost van der Westhuizen made that tackle – it epitomised the spirit of arguably South Africa’s greatest scrumhalf; a man who says that “if you have an attitude that nothing will get in your way, you will reach your goals.”

It is a motto the man who holds South Africa’s record for caps and tries adopted as his personal mantra as a young boy and which will see him become the first Springbok to play in three Rugby World Cups.

Joost Heystek van der Westhuizen grew up in a working class suburb in Pretoria and attended an unfashionable school. It was a background that shaped his attitude for he always felt that he had to fight for everything he achieved; such as recovering from a massive groin injury and three successive knee ligament injuries to get back to the top just when the newspapers were ready to carry his retirement notices.

“When people don’t give you a chance you have to prove them wrong,” says the tall scrumhalf who captained South Africa with such determination at the 1999 World Cup that he played in the play-off for third place against New Zealand even though the ligaments in his right-knee, first injured at Twickenham the year before, had again parted.

The force of his personality has carried his province, the Blue Bulls, to two Currie Cup victories (in 1998 and 2002) against more fancied opponents and himself back into the Springbok side this year when at the start of the Super 12 he was rated as No4 among the Bulls’ scrumhalves by coach Rudy Joubert.

Often derided as being too tall for his chosen position, Van der Westhuizen was never the greatest passer of the ball, but he imparted a physicality, an ability to break through or simply hurdle over opponents with devastating force and to tackle with the strength of a loose forward, that made him arguably the greatest Springbok of his era.

A combination of his injuries and the onsetting years have caused his pace to wane but he still exerts a compelling influence and an indefinable aura.

He made his test debut for the Springboks against Argentina in Buenos Aires on November 6, 1993 and also captained South African in the World Cup Sevens final in Hong Kong in 1997.

The man known as “J9” likes to quote Michael Jordan - “I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying” – and is the archetypal “winner” who says the 2003 World Cup is the last of his rugby goals. His message to his teammates sums up his approach perfectly.

“The World Cup is not about good rugby – it is about winning. You have to go out and win seven successive games and if you do that you win the World Cup – there is no other way.”

Van der Westhuizen’s career has spanned eight coaches, 10 scrumhalves who challenged him and fell by the wayside, 85 caps, 35 tries, 200-plus first-class games, three World Cups, three surgeries and still there is no more determined player in South African.

His desire remains undiminished because, as he says, “I don’t just want to be part of the World Cup team, I want to be part of a winning World Cup team.”

“There really is only one way to win the World Cup. You simply have to go out and beat three of the best teams in the world on three successive weekends from the quarterfinals onwards, but in our case it is harder because we have England in our pool.

“I have no doubt that on our day we can beat anyone and I feel the same way about the England game. To me the key is avoiding mistakes – whether defending, attacking or choosing options – and it becomes more important the further you advance in the tournament.

“Just like in 1995 with our first game against Australia, meeting England in the pools represents a high road, low road scenario and there are no magic formulas – you just have to go out and do it.”

You just know Joost will die trying. All we need now is 14 others of him.