Joost has never wanted to do anything else than play rugby. At the age of five he first held a rugby ball and as they say in the classics, the rest was history...
His earliest memories are of rugby and a yearning desire to one day play for his country. “I wanted to be a Springbok more than anything else,” he recalls admitting that to this day misses the game that transpired him to world fame.
Throughout his school career he always played in the A sides, show casing a talent envied by many. In 1988 he played in his first Craven Week tournament before being chosen to represent the then Northern Transvaal at Under-15, Under-19 and Under-20 level.
In 1992 he was chosen to represent the senior team (the Blue Bulls) playing alongside people he had idolized since childhood.
To this day he remains an avid Blue Bull supporter who throughout his professional career never changed his club for greener pastures.
Capped 89 times for the Springboks Joost became the country’s first choice scrum-half in the mid-to-late nineties to early 2000s retiring a rugby legend with a career test try tally of 38 earning him the record of being the scrum-half with the most tries in Test Rugby.
Widely regarded for his aggressive attitude whose uncharacteristically large build for a scrum-half continued to defy the impossible, Joost was a ferocious player whose fearless defence tactics earned him the reputation of a fighter who never gave up and never backed down.
Inducted in the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007 he represented South Africa in three Rugby World Cups in 1995, 1999 and 2003. He is also the only Springbok to captain his country in both the Sevens and the 15-man games in World Cups.
Joost remains extremely proud of his sporting achievements claiming that his life as a rugby player formed the man he is today. “I believe that sport is the best educational medium in life. Through sport I learnt that when you are down, you build character and when you are up then only do you use that character.”
Having retired from professional rugby in 2003 Joost, no doubt, remains one of the most inspirational players in the history of South African rugby.