Stormers Workhorse Among First Batch Of URC Award Winners

Known for his incredible work rate, the 27-year-old scooped the Tackle Machine award, which goes to the player who boasts the best tackle success rate among those who have attempted 150 or more over the course of the league campaign.

The remarkably reliable Van Heerden took the honours having made 171 tackles at a success rate of 98%, beating out Glasgow Warriors forward Rory Darge, who made 160 tackles with an accuracy of 97%, and Sharks star Phepsi Buthelezi, who placed third with 157 tackles and a tackle accuracy of 96.82%.

Meanwhile, Ioan Lloyd, Harri Millard, Cam Winnett and Tom Farrell all added their names to the cross-hemisphere competition’s honour roll by winning the Gilbert Golden Boot, OFX Top Try Scorer, Ironman, and Playmaker prizes respectively.

The Gilbert Golden Boot is awarded to the player who kicks the most points in the regular season. That was none other than Scarlets playmaker Lloyd, who racked up 124 points, 46 of which came from conversions, with the remaining 78 coming from successful penalty goals. Jordan Hendrikse, in his first season at the Sharks, finished second with 108 points and Edinburgh’s Ross Thompson was third with 105 points.

Cardiff’s Millard claimed the OFX Top Try Scorer award. He finished the regular season with nine tries, level with Stormers wing Leolin Zas and Munster centre Tom Farrell. However, the 28-year-old won out due to having scored his tries in the least amount of time – 796 minutes across 13 appearances.

Another Welshman, Winnett, earned the Ironman award after racking up an unrivalled 1427 playing minutes over the course of the regular season. The 22-year-old fullback started all 18 rounds of the league phase for Cardiff, missing just 13 minutes all season. He finished ahead of Munster’s Tom Farrell (1371 minutes) and Dragons forward, Shane Lewis-Hughes (1353 minutes).

After narrowly missing out on the two previous awards, Tom Farrell etched his name in the history books by becoming the inaugural winner of the Playmaker award.

The new gong is given to the player who creates chances and tries for his team, with three key metrics used to decide the winner – try assists, successfully completed offloads, and defenders beaten. A player is awarded three points for each try assist, two points for each offload, and one point for each defender beaten.

Munster midfielder Farrell’s tally of 158 points comes from five try assists (15 points), 41 offloads (82 points) and 61 defenders beaten (61 points). He won out over two South African stars, Stormers fullback, Warrick Gelant (118 points), and Lions star, Quan Horn (111 points).