Pieter-Steph du Toit is arguably the best Springbok rugby player in history, and will join the century club on Saturday.
Pieter-Steph du Toit will become the latest Springbok Test centurion when he takes to the field in the second Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test against the All Blacks at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday evening. The big question is, is he the greatest Springbok player of all time?
GOAT (greatest of all time) debates are always tough, because they are subjective and often come down to whether someone is well liked or not, which sways opinion.
And there unfortunately isn’t an outright metric in rugby that you can weigh players on to definitively prove that someone is the best.
In sports such as athletics, you can say that Usain Bolt is the sprinting GOAT as he holds multiple world records, or Mondo Duplantis is the pole vault GOAT because he seems to break his own world record every time he jumps.
But rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes and different players bring different skill sets to the team, which makes it much harder to judge who is the best. But, it is still fun to do.
Du Toit is, however, one of the Boks’ best ever players, and even one of the best to have played the game worldwide.
The 34-year-old already boasts a whole host of titles and awards to his name, with the biggest being his two World Cup triumphs, and his two World Rugby Player of the Year gongs.
He is one of just four players to have won the most prestigious individual award in rugby multiple times, since it was launched in 2001, along with Dan Carter (3), Richie McCaw (3) and Beauden Barrett (2).
He will now become the 11th Springbok Test centurion in history, an honour he will share with a number of other players who could be considered the Bok GOAT, such as Bryan Habana, Victor Matfield, Eben Etzebeth and Siya Kolisi.
Playing one hundred games for the Boks doesn’t automatically qualify you as the GOAT though, as players like Fourie du Preez, Schalk Burger, Cheslin Kolbe, Joost van der Westhuizen, Duane Vermeulen and Frans Steyn could all also be considered among the greatest.
Even outside the professional era of rugby, which started in 1995, players like Danie Gerber, Frik du Preez and Naas Botha would be in the conversation.
But since making his Springbok debut as a 21-year, Du Toit has become one of the most ruthlessly consistent players in the game, and it was perhaps summed up best by teammate Cobus Reinach earlier this week when he said he would much rather play with him than against him.
“Pieter-Steph playing his 100th is a huge milestone, and it shows what type of player and person he is,” said Reinach.
“He’s probably not the most vocal guy, but he leads in the way he plays. I’d rather play with him than against him, to be honest.
“Hats off to him as a player. He’s been through knee and shoulder injuries and many other setbacks, and he is still here, showing up week in and week out, and keeps on performing as he does, so we are very proud of him.”
Speaking of those major injuries, one almost ended his career. While playing for the Stormers in a Super Rugby match back in 2020 he hurt his leg and had it not been for the timely intervention of team doctor Jason Suter he might very well have lost that leg. Fortunately, it got treated in time and it was saved.
That was just a year after his first World Cup triumph and first Player of the Year award.
Instead, Du Toit was able to fight his way back to full fitness and strength and play on, to win a second World Cup and Player of the Year title, and arguably become the Springboks’ GOAT.
