Springbok legend Joost Van der Westhuizen in fight for his life
Just 42, Van der Westhuizen's greatest battle now is not on the field against the likes of the All Blacks or Wallabies, but against a deadly disease
The first time I ever saw Joost van der Westhuizen play was at Ellis Park in February 1992. It was my first view of rugby in South Africa and nothing was the same as the game I had left in Britain. Except the weather, that is. It poured with rain. From a scrum five metres out, Joost broke around the side, slipped, and aquaplaned over the line to score. There was a touch of Gareth Edwards about it and I made a mental note to keep an eye on this man.
Two years later I was with the real Gareth Edwards in Cardiff, discussing the imminent Springbok selection for a test against Wales. Incredible as it seems in retrospect, Springbok coach Kitch Christie was expected to pick Johan Roux at scrumhalf, due to his more reliable kicking game. Edwards scratched his head and looked quizzically into the middle distance. "He must be a hell of a player," he said, diplomatically.
In the event, Joost made the starting line-up, and his play over the next 12 months brooked no argument. He had springs in his heels, a dazzling turn of pace, magnificent defence and a nose for the try line. The one thing he never had was technique and as Kevin Putt, another of Joost's rivals for the Bok number nine jersey said: "He wasn't a scrumhalf's a***, but he was a hell of a rugby player."
Now in a wheelchair for most of the day, he is a pale shadow of the dynamic presence I first saw play 20 years ago
In 1995 Joost was a key member of the Springbok squad that won the World Cup. He was captain of the team who tried to defend the title in 1999. A couple of bad injuries had slowed him down, but the desire to win still burned bright in his green eyes. Having divorced his first wife, Marlene, he had been seen in the company of Afrikaans singer and entertainer Amor Vittone. When the pair got married it was South Africa's version of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe.
Early in the new millennium, Joost got his pilot's licence and bought a helicopter. At the end of the 2003 season he retired from rugby and then moved seamlessly from player to pundit, commentating and presenting for Supersport, the South African satellite television station. Along the way Amor produced two children, but kept working.
It was not unusual for Joost to rush from the rugby ground after a commentary and join his wife on stage in time for the encores. From the outside they seemed to be the perfect couple, but there was a problem and the problem was cocaine.
In February 2009, a video emerged that was to change Joost's life. It featured an almost naked couple engaging in what Heat magazine called "sex-play" and snorting a white powder. Joost denied that the man in the video was him, but when Marilize van Emmenis identified herself as the blonde half of the combination he admitted the truth. It brought a swift end to his marriage with Amor, although the two have not formally divorced, and in June of the same year Joost was admitted to hospital with a suspected heart attack.