SA Rugby Awards: Only one winner for Player of the Year!

The Springbok season drew to a close when they won the Rugby World Cup for a record fourth time in Paris last month, and as the local season is now over, the process to identify the winners in the various categories for the South African Rugby Player of the Year Awards at the Sa Rugby Awards has begun.

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SA RUGBY AWARDS

There will again be winners in a number of categories for the 2023 season, which saw the Springbok Women claim third place in the inaugural WXV 2 competition, the Blitzboks take part in the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Springbok Women’s Sevens team winning the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series and the Junior Boks finishing third in the World Rugby Under-20 Championship.

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One of the big awards – especially in the context of the Springboks’ World Cup win – will be the SA Rugby Men’s Player of the Year. The specifics of the award are as follows: “Outstanding men’s player of the season, all South African-qualified players playing in SA Rugby competitions and teams (overseas-based players who featured in SA Rugby competitions in 2023 before taking up contracts abroad are eligible for the award).

The likely candidates for this award are expected to be Ox Nche, Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Cheslin Kolbe.

However, the award is surely set to go to Ezebeth once again, with the powerful lock having enjoyed an incredible 2023 season in which he started nine Tests.

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ETZEBETH HAS BEEN A STANDOUT SPRINGBOK PLAYER IN 2023

Etzebeth has already enjoyed a remarkable career when it comes to maintaining consistent fitness and form, and also keep in mind that he only recently turned 32 years old, while he now has 119 Test caps to his name.

The big man could quite feasibly play Test rugby for at least another five years if he is well managed and maintains his remarkable conditioning. Don’t forget Matfield made his final Springbok appearance at the age of 38, while the most-capped international player of all time, Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones, is 37-years-old but has no plans to retire.

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Considering that the Springboks generally play 12 to 13 Internationals in a normal Test year, it’s actually not beyond the realms of possibility that Etzebeth could become the first South African to play more than 150 Bok matches.

All in all, it’s an incredible prospect for the future, with the powerful lock having already won a World Cup and a British & Irish Lions series with the Springboks, while his impact at the current global showpiece has been off the charts.

Etzebeth was the obvious choice as the 2022 SA Rugby Player of the Year, and fitness and form permitting, there is good reason to believe he will increasingly entrench himself as the greatest Springbok of all time.

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