OPINION: It was a poorly worded question and he made me pay for it.
With a smile and a sparkle in his eyes, Joost Van der Westhuizen was happy to tell me what his favourite game as a Springbok was.
The question came as he settled into a lounge chair poolside at a Durban hotel in 2003, a few days before his last game against the All Blacks on South African soil, at his home ground in Pretoria.
He chatted about ‘that game’, when the Springboks beat the All Blacks in the 1995 World Cup final and the impact it had on the players and his country.
He was proud. Justifiably proud.
He’d been phenomenally good, not just in that game when he has his teammates upset the more fancied All Blacks as they keep a previously rampant Jonah Lomu contained, but whenever he played for his country.
During 10 years as a Springbok, Van der Westhuizen played 89 Tests, helping his team to victory at the 1995 World Cup over New Zealand and the 1998 Tri-Nations. He played in three World Cups, and was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame and World Rugby Half of Fame.
He was more than just a Springbok - he was almost as passionate about his Blue Bulls.
They were often awful for much of the early part of Super Rugby, but Joost was unfailingly polite in his role as captain despite the often-dire results.
So it was disquieting at first, a few years ago, to meet him again when he visited the All Blacks as they trained for a Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg. Confined to a wheel chair by the crippling muscular disease that would inevitably take his life, he was also virtually unable to speak, his brother at his side to help translate.
But the sparkle was still there, as was the strength of spirit, as he talked about how much he had loved playing the All Blacks.
We saw that determination again a few days later when, with the aid of a mechanical walking frame, he was able to stand and walk around the field at Ellis Park. The roar from the crowd was deafening. This was a man who had risen to the top; only to slip in the public’s eyes through some personal failings, but then to rise again as he came to grips with his fatal disease and then set about raising money for research into motor neuron disease.
Joost was a halfback All Blacks fans were happy to love. Tall, strong and quick, he could turn a game on his own, played hard but fair and was always competitive. He would’ve made a mighty All Black.
He was a once in a lifetime Springbok.