BOK YSTER: Why never-say-die Pieter-Steph embodies the spirit of Rassie’s Boks

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> Pieter-Steph du Toit has bounced back from several career-threatening setbacks to become the talisman of South Africa’s golden generation and one of the all-time greats.

Coach Rassie Erasmus has called on the Springboks to deliver a gladiatorial performance in the second Test of the Greatest Rivalry series – for the sake of Pieter-Steph du Toit and Ox Nché.

Du Toit will win his 100th Test cap when he leads South Africa at the Cape Town Stadium this Saturday, while Nché will represent South Africa for the 50th time.

Speaking at a press conference earlier this week, Erasmus lamented the Boks’ 33-16 loss to the All Blacks in the series opener and the fact that Damian de Allende’s 100th game had ended on the worst possible note.

The Bok coach hopes that the team will be a lot sharper this coming Saturday, and that Du Toit and Nché will have further reason to celebrate at the final whistle.

“I’ve been involved with this team for the past nine years, and I can tell you they are both humble guys, and they both deserve to reach these milestones,” Erasmus said.

While the team will focus on the task at hand, Du Toit’s milestone is particularly noteworthy and worth unpacking.

The flanker has been one of the common denominators throughout this golden era for the Boks, winning back-to-back World Cups, a series against the British & Irish Lions and three Rugby Championships – as well as two World Rugby Player of the Year awards, in 2019 and 2024.

What those titles and accolades won’t tell you is how hard Du Toit has worked over the past 13 years, or how many challenges he’s overcome. And while rugby is a team sport, one wonders if the Boks would have scaled such heights if Du Toit had accepted his fate following a life-changing incident in 2020.

Six years ago, Du Toit sustained a freakish injury while on duty for the Stormers in a Super Rugby match, and if not for a timely intervention by the team doctor, he would have lost his left leg.

Several surgeries later, medical experts told the flanker that he would never run again. While many would have hung up their boots at that point, Du Toit got to work.

When I caught up with Du Toit several months later, he spoke about the traumatic experience in no uncertain terms and revealed how the vascular surgeon had cut through the muscle and left the wound open, exposed for 10 days.

After being discharged from hospital, he returned to the family farm in Riebeek Kasteel and took some time to consider his options. While the ordeal served as a reminder that there is more to life than rugby, he wasn’t done with the game just yet.

Some 16 months elapsed between that fateful game for the Stormers and his next Test for the Boks against Georgia in July 2021 – and at the time of his comeback, many described it as a miraculous story in of itself.