Joost van der Westhuizen is pissed off. A month ahead of his third and final Rugby World Cup he says, ‘When we come back with the cup suddenly everyone is going to see us as World Champions, whereas right now they simply don’t believe in us. South Africans typically just support winners, and when we win they’ll all suddenly become Springbok supporters again”.
It’s a long time since Joost was regarded as the best scrumhalf in the world, but while the electric pace off the mark may have been lost as the consequence of several knee operations, the competitive fires obviously still burn. Doubt is for lesser players and fair-weather fans.
‘I’ve been a scrumhalf since the age of five and I attract a lot of criticism for the way I play, but I always believe that you have to look in the mirror and be honest to yourself. The problem is that if you read the papers and see all the criticism, if you start to believe it then you’re in trouble”.
The press would have you believe that van der Westhuizen is not just over the hill, but more than halfway down the other side and ready for a smoking jacket and slippers. Too slow, they say. Not me, says he.
‘It’s typically South African and I’ve been dealing with it for 12 years. I like to turn it over and use it as motivation. A lot of people say I’m slow, but what is slow? Is my pass slow, is my running slow, is my cleaning slow or are my options slow? Nobody can specify. When things aren’t going well for a team the first thing the press look for is the captain or the coach and then they go after the senior players. Naturally when you look for reasons you find them and why look further than the 32-year-old scrumhalf?”
Of course, in 1999 Joost was only 28, but people were saying the same things and he was denying them just as vehemently. Back then he said, ‘When I was still a nobody I got my Springbok colours and everyone looked up to me. Now when I’m a somebody, everyone wants me to be the perfect person on the rugby field. If I make a mistake I’m in big trouble. If the other scrumhalf makes a mistake he hasn’t got the experience so it’s okay. I know I make mistakes, but I am only human”.
The proof was in the pudding and while most South Africans will remember the ’99 campaign for Jannie de Beer’s five drop goals against England it’s worth remembering that it was Joost who got the crucial try at Stade de France shortly before half time in that momentous quarterfinal.
It’s also worth remembering that van der Westhuizen was the Springbok player of the tournament and virtually unrecognisable from the fretful man who struggled through the early part of the season. So when he says without a hint of irony that the Springboks will win the World Cup in 2003, disbelief is temporarily suspended, no matter what a critical public might say.
‘In a sense you can’t blame them: the fact is that we haven’t produced this year, but we had a similar build up in ’99, proved everyone wrong and only lost to Australia with a drop goal. I have mixed emotions about being made captain for that tournament. I was happy to be appointed, but I was very angry when I found out that it was a ploy by Nick Mallett to cover up his mistakes.
‘The best way to fill the hole was to get a typical Afrikaans captain to silence the supporters. So I was annoyed, but I decided that I still had to go out and give of my best because I was still playing for my country and now I was the captain I would try to lead from the front”.
The divisions within the camp were obvious during the pool stages and van der Westhuizen insists that it was only when the team decided to play as they wanted, rather than as Mallett would have it, that things began to look up.
‘The team only really came together on the Monday before the quarterfinal against England. Before that meeting some of the players were scared. Os du Randt and Naka Drotske, for instance, came into the side because of their ability to get over the advantage line. Now they were losing the ball in those situations and all hell broke loose, so they were scared to play.
‘One of the main reasons we beat England was because finally we decided to stand together and to play the game the way we felt was best. At Thursday’s training session Jannie de Beer asked me to stay behind and pass him a few balls. He practised his drop kicking for the first time and it went well so he said he was thinking of using it as a tactic against England. I said fine, we could use the points, and that was about it.
‘Of course he used the tactic to good effect on Saturday and on the Monday the coach said that he had outthought the English, which I thought was quite funny”.
Four years later Mallett is back coaching in France and van der Westhuizen is going to another World Cup. What would the odds have been on that scenario at the end of the third place playoff game between the Boks and the All Blacks in Cardiff in 1999?