Joost van der Westhuizen, South Africa rugby legend, dies aged 45 after 7-year battle with motor neurone disease

Rugby was united in mourning on Monday after Joost van der Westhuizen, an icon of South Africa’s World Cup victory in 1995, finally lost his brave fight against motor neurone disease aged 45. When the former South Africa scrum half and captain was diagnosed with the MND in 2011, he was given just a couple of years to live. Typical of the man, Van der Westhuizen defied the doctors’ predictions to hold on for six years, all the while raising funds for fellow suffers of this vicious disease through his charity, the J9 Foundation.
He was admitted an intensive care unit at a Johannesburg hospital on Friday and yesterday morning J9 confirmed in a statement that he had passed away. Van der Westhuizen won 89 caps for the Springboks scoring scored an astonishing 38 tries, a record that wing Bryan Habana only recently surpassed. His defining contribution came in the 1995 World Cup final against New Zealand in shackling the previously unstoppable All Black wing Jonah Lomu in South Africa’s 15-12 victory.
At 6ft 1in, Van Der Westhuizen redefined scrum half play with his physicality often acting as an auxiliary forward. Only Gareth Edwards rivals him in the pantheon of great scrum halves.