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Joost van der Westhuizen memorial in Pretoria

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Friends, family and the rugby world have been paying tribute to Joost van der Westhuizen at a public memorial service in Pretoria

Francois Pienaar led the tributes to rugby "rockstar" Joost van der Westhuizen at Friday's memorial service in Pretoria.

Van der Westhuizen, who died this week at the age of 45, was scrum-half in the South Africa side Pienaar captained to World Cup glory in 1995.

His old Springboks team-mates carried his coffin into the public service at the Loftus Versfeld stadium, where Pienaar remembered a colleague full of life on the pitch and off.

He said: "On the field, he played like a rock star, and off the field he partied like a rock star because he was, after all, a rock star."

Van der Westhuizen is widely regarded as among the greatest No 9s in the history of rugby union and won 89 caps over a 10-year period following his debut in 1993.

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It was announced in 2011 that he was suffering from motor neurone disease.

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