The greatest: Scrum-half
As expected, scrum-half had opinions divided more than any other position so far. In the end, Joost van der Westhuizen claimed the number nine jersey with 29 per cent of your votes.
As expected, scrum-half had opinions divided more than any other position so far. In the end, Joost van der Westhuizen claimed the number nine jersey with 29 per cent of your votes.
Opinions were so divided in the Planet Rugby offices as to who the candidates should be that we were forced to give you seven options to avoid the debate degenerating into fisticuffs amongst our staffers.
Van der Westhuizen's 29 per cent of your votes was the lowest winning tally of the back-line so far – not that it's a reflection of his class in any way. Rather, and we're sure you'll agree, it has more to do with the class of the opposition. George Gregan got 22 per cent of the vote to win a place on the bench as your second choice while Fourie du Preez got 17 per cent.
AgustÃn Pichot was next in line and we were all very surprised by the poor support for All Blacks duo Byron Kelleher and Justin Marshall.
Back to the winner. Joost Heystek van der Westhuizen was born and bred in Pretoria, where he still lives today, and went on to become a legend at Loftus Versfeld in the light blue jersey of Northern Transvaal and the Blue Bulls.
More importantly, we all remember Van der Westhuizen as being part of the 1995 World Cup-winning Springbok side. He still holds the record for the most tries scored in a Springbok jersey, both in Test and tour matches. His career tally of 38 makes him the scrum-half with the most tries in Test Rugby.
He also still holds the record for being South Africa's most capped scrum-half and is the second-most capped Bok of all time behind Percy Montgomery.
A big guy for a scrum-half, Van der Westhuizen was never afraid to take the ball up himself and mix it with the forwards. But his size didn't mean he looked for contact, on the contrary, he become the master of the sniping run. His explosive acceleration and his eye for a gap made him a nightmare for defenders around the fringes, as testified by his try-scoring record.
Today Van der Westhuizen is somewhat of a celebrity in South Africa, complete with pop-star wife, Amor Vitone, and is often seen as a presenter on TV.
Of course a celebrity life often comes with dose of scandal, but that's not the kind of thing we're interested in at PR.
Now for the really controversial picks! Time to start voting for the forwards, starting with number eight. You've got 48 hours…