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Erasmus and Kolisi among six rugby nominations for SA sporting gongs
By Kim Ekin
Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and captain Siya Kolisi are among six rugby union nominees for the 15th annual SA Sport Awards that were announced on Saturday.
Makazole Mapimpi, Ronald Brown, the Springboks and the South African Rugby Union make up the six-strong nominees in various categories for their achievements between 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2021.
Kolisi has been nominated in two categories – the Sports Star of the Year as well as the People’s Choice Sport Star of the Year.
Mapimpi is one of three nominees in the category for Sportsman of the Year, while Blitzbok star Brown has been nominated as one of the Newcomers of the Year.
The Springboks have been nominated as Team of the Year; Director of Rugby Erasmus is on the list for the Coach of the Year Award; and SARU has been nominated in the category for Sports Federation of the Year.
“These nominations once again underline the success we’ve had on rugby fields all over the world in the last couple of years and we are very proud of all the nominees,” said President of SA Rugby Mark Alexander. “We are operating in challenging times in a difficult environment, but with everyone in the game prepared to pull in the same direction and to work for the same end-goal, anything is possible, as Rassie, Siya, Makazole and the Boks have proved over the last couple of years.
“And Ronald has once again shown us what can be achieved by good old resilience, belief and hard work.
“Our gratitude goes out to the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture for the recognition, and I would like to wish all the nominees well for the awards this weekend.”
The winner of the People’s Choice Sports Star of the Year, where Kolisi is up against Ntando Mahlangu (Paralympic sprinter), Brad Binder (GP motorcycle racer), Bianca Buitendag (Olympic surfer) and Tatjana Schoenmaker (Olympic swimmer) will be determined by a public vote.
The winners will be announced on Saturday, 12 March in Durban.
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Latest Comments
Total and utter rubbish. All that so-called ‘Super’ rugby did for SA rugby was to increase the airmiles accounts for our players and contribute a moer of a lot of cash to the Antipodeans. SA's schools and club rugby are the secret, and the only problem for our top sides is that so many of them are being poached by the European ones, and from an early age, too. That's why the Boks are so good, but the SA senior sides not so much at the moment, but are slowly coming to terms with having to play in NH weather. Mind you, they had to do that in skaapnaaier territory in the old days, too.
Go to commentsI can’t believe Rugby Australia thought the NZRU would accept 1-12 split. I’m sure if the split was more even then the NZRU would’ve made it work.
It’s even worse when the NZRU relatively recently gave Rugby Australia a bigger cut of the Super Rugby broadcast.
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