JOHANNESBURG - Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies is South Africa’s Super Rugby Player of the last 10 years!
That’s according to statistical facts and figures crunched by the numbers guys at Sanzaar, the controlling body of the Super Rugby competition.
Jantjies, who has also played for the Springboks and was part of the national team that won the World Cup in Japan last year, is one of six Lions players to feature in the “Dream Team” of the last decade. The other Lions to crack the side are hooker Malcolm Marx, lock Franco Mostert, No 8 Warren Whiteley, wing Courtnall Skosan and fullback Andries Coetzee.
The Lions, after being relegated from the Super Rugby competition in 2013 (for the Southern Kings) because of poor results, hit back under the guidance of Johan Ackermann and then Swys de Bruin to play in three successive finals in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Some of the statistics and figures used to determine the team and the country’s best player (Jantjies) included “ball carries”, “metres gained”, “defenders beaten”, “try assists”, “clean breaks” and “tackles made” and “points scored” by the backs, while the forwards were picked according to “turn-overs won”, “carries”, “lineouts stolen” and “offloads”.
Springboks World Cup winning captain Siya Kolisi made the side at No 6. Only two forwards in the last decade made more “metres” than the Stormers man (2100) from his 624 “carries”, while he also made the second most clean breaks (53) of any forward in South Africa.
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— Super Rugby/TRC (@SuperRugby)
SA TEAM OF THE DECADE:
15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff.