Joe van Niekerk: from rugby fields to a farm in the Costa Rican jungle

Joe van Niekerk’s rugby career ended seven years ago with Toulon winning the French championship and European Cup. It was a fairytale finish for a player who had regularly led a cast of rugby superstars, including Bryan Habana and Jonny Wilkinson, to success. The South African had captained the club for four years but in his final season he knew that, while the spotlight continued to blare down on his teammates in the picturesque port French city, it was slowly dimming on him. Time was moving on ruthlessly. Van Niekerk celebrated the successes with his teammates heartily and then exited the stage quietly. He was barely seen for the next two years.

Van Niekerk emerged from those two years a different man, both physically and mentally. “Nobody had seen me for a very long time,” he remembers. “I spent that time really getting to grips with my mind and my body. I was getting comfortable with solitude, and studying yogis. I needed to cleanse my body from the absolute carnage of 15 years of professional rugby.

“I read about yogis and how their day would start at 4.30 am with a cold bath, doing their mantras and going to the beach and watching the sunrise. I was still in France, but I wasn’t going to any games or engaging with rugby. I needed to look within myself. There was a feeling of loss there, who the hell am I? You’ve been told you’re this and that. You’re Joe the rugby player. Then that’s gone and, in spite of that initial feeling of loss, eventually, I found such joy and peace.”

Van Niekerk had grown up as something of a rugby prodigy in South Africa, making his debut against the All Blacks in 2001 not long after his 21st birthday. Blessed with good looks, a quick turn of pace and unrelenting physicality, he was feted