let me just start by saying that i personally think joost van der westhuizen may be the best scrum half the world has ever seen and besides possibly advising steve hofmeyr not to add the line "'n blou bul snuif nie van 'n hoer af nie" to his blou bul song because it can't be substantiated, i don't particularly care about the recent media frenzy about the man. i think they should just leave him alone, whether the stories are true or not.
however, after one of my old interns related a story to me many years ago i never viewed him as too bright. i suppose you don't need to be bright to be the best scrum half the world has ever seen.
my house doctor was going out with a rugby mad guy (i suppose a bit like me actually). her boyfriend was a particular fan of joost van der westhuizen (as i was too). one day she was walking through the streets of pretoria when who should she run into but none other than joost himself. she was not a great fan of rugby and by implication of joost but she was quite a fan of her boyfriend. she therefore decided to ask him for an autograph which she would give to her boyfriend and thereby earn many brownie points. the way she tells the story, the exchange went something like this.
"excuse me mr van der westhuizen, but could i please have an autograph?" says she presenting him with paper and pen in order to facilitate the exchange.
"ok, if it doesn't take too long." replies the legend.
"why? do you have a problem writing your own name?"
she did not get the autograph and the associated brownie points. she did, however get a good laugh from me.
