RUGBY SPORTS MEMORABILIA LIMITED EDITION IN JOHANNESBURG

The discovery of his serious illness mellowed and matured the player, quickly and seemingly enormously.

Setting up the J9 Foundation, he became a dedicated, industrious crusader – despite his painfully obvious, gradual own decline in strength – for awareness and funding of MND, including auctioning off much of his treasured personal memorabilia for cash-raising purposes.

He fought the disease with all, and quite probably more, of the courage that defined his rugby days, almost certainly winning over emphatically people who might have been detractors to varying degrees in the years preceding the condition.

A rare gentleness and humanity was evident in many of his Twitter posts as his days became numbered.

In rugby and then a much less welcome battle for him, Joost van der Westhuizen was simply as tough as they come.