Heyneke Meyer on Joost: 'You could go to war with him'
'The one thing that I keep coming back to is that both as a player and person he was a warrior and a fighter'
Former Bulls and Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer knew Joost van der Westhuizen from when he was a schoolboy and always admired his fighting spirit. Van der Westhuizen died on Monday after a lengthy battle against motor neuron disease (MND). He was 45 and leaves behind two children‚ Jordan (13) and Kylie (10)‚ as well as his father Gustav‚ mother Mariana‚ and brothers Pieter and Gustav. “I knew Joost most of his life because when I was a young teacher at FH Odendaal he was at school there‚” Meyer told TMG Digital. “There are so many things you can say about Joost but the one thing that I keep coming back to is that both as a player and person he was a warrior and a fighter. “It was very sad to see him physically go backwards but he never lost that fighting spirit. “One incident epitomises that for me: We were at a gala dinner about a couple of years after he was diagnosed with his illness. He was very sick and he couldn’t talk properly at that stage. “He said something to me and I didn...
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