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 still holds the record for the most test tries by a South African player. 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 steely green eyes and uncharacteristically big build for a scrum-half, he was known as an aggressive and fast runner and ferocious defender. Joost 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. Joost 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. In July 2004 he joined Supersport as a commentator.

Controversy

In February 2009, Rapport newspaper and Heat magazine reported that they had video evidence of him engaging in sex play with a mystery blonde and snorting a white substance.^[1] He denied being in the video but admitted knowing the two people in it.^[2], although he has never identified who they are. Heat magazine later posted censored versions of the video online ^[3]. Van der Westhuizen said he would lay criminal charges and civil claims against the makers/producers of the video, but eight months later has not done so.

In March 2009, a mystery former female sports star - thought to be high-jump champion Charmaine Weavers (Gale) - claimed in a very detailed interview in YOU magazine that she had an on-off affair with him, with sexual encounters even while his wife Amor was in hospital.^[4] Also in March, a former stripper called Marilize van Emmenis came forward and in an interview with heat magazine said that she was the girl in the video with van der Westhuizen, and that they had done drugs together. She passed a polygraph test ^[5] and her voice was verified by a voice-recognition expert ^[6]. van der Westhuizen has refused to comment on this and other subsequent allegations of improper conduct with other women.

On June 28th 2009, van der Westhuizen was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack, though he was discharged soon afterward when tests found no evidence of heart problems. A panic attack was suspected. ^[7] On November 1st Van der Westuizen confessed that it was him in the controversial sex video and he apologized for lying.^[8]

References

External links

• Joost van der Westhuizen at SARugby.co.za
• Bates, Rupert (2007-09-02). "Joost van der Westhuizen wary on South Africa". telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/09/02/srjoos102.xml. Retrieved 2007-12-26. 
• "Joost van der Westhuizen". bbc.co.uk. 2003-09-24. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/team_pages/south_africa/players_to_watch/2956856.stm. Retrieved 2007-12-26. 
• "Joost van der Westhuizen". rugbyhalloffame.com. http://www.rugbyhalloffame.com/pages/westhuizen2007.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-26. 
• "Joost Van der Westhuizen". scrum.com. http://www.scrum.com/1200_1205.php?player=15249&includeref=dynamic. Retrieved 2007-12-26.