Springboks dominate World Rugby Awards
A South African flanker has been voted the best player on the planet...
South Africa’s head coach Rassie Erasmus lifts the Webb Ellis Cup as they celebrate winning the Japan 2019 Rugby World Cup final match between England and South Africa at the International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama on November 2, 2019. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
The Springboks underlined their dominance of the international game on Sunday by sweeping to various accolades at the World Rugby Awards in Tokyo.
Following their victory over England in Saturday’s World Cup final, it was a done deal that South Africa would be named team-of-the-year.
Not only did the Boks claim a third world title with a dominant 32-12 victory, they also earlier in the year won a shortened Rugby Championship.
Notably, they also became the first team in history win both those trophies in a single year.
As a result, the mastermind behind this remarkable transformation – Rassie Erasmus – was crowned coach-of-the-year.
The 47-year-old ended his first year as head coach with a patchy record of seven wins and seven losses, but the groundwork laid in 2018 clearly bore juicy fruit in 2019 – as a season record of nine wins from 11 matches, which included only one loss.
Erasmus will leave a remarkable legacy given that he confirmed his final Test as head coach was the showpiece against England, instigating this turnaround in essentially just over 18 months.
He’ll focus on his director of rugby duties now.
Furthermore, the magnificent rise of Pieter-Steph du Toit continued as he was named world player-of-the-year.
It took a while for the towering figure to get used to the intricacies of being a flanker at the highest level after initially establishing himself as a lock.
But his determination to get fitter and better saw him gradually become a dominant force at No 7, leaving observers stunned with his incredible work rate on defence.
He also showcased some finesse, notably setting up a brilliant try against the Wallabies in the Rugby Champs at Ellis Park and scoring his own against the All Blacks in South Africa’s pool game loss in Yokohama.
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