Cheetahs duo scoop PRO14 awards

Cape Town - SA Rugby president Mark Alexander congratulated Cheetahs duo Rabz Maxwane and Tian Schoeman for being honoured at the PRO14 awards ceremony in Dublin on Sunday night.

The two players were named among nine top achievers for the 2018/19 season at a glittering ceremony at the Guinness Storehouse in the Irish capital.

Maxwane walked away with the Top-Try Scorer Award after finishing the pool stages of the PRO14 season as the top try scorer with an impressive 14 five-pointers, while Schoeman was named the Iron Man after playing an incredible 1 564 minutes of rugby - the most by an individual in the competition this season.

Schoeman also boasts the bragging rights of being the fourth-highest points' scorer in the 2018/2019 season with 134 points, while the Southern Kings' Masixole Banda was two places behind him on the table with 115 points.

Another three South Africans joined Maxwane among the top 10 try-scorers - the Cheetahs’ Shaun Venter scored 10 tries, while the Southern Kings' duo of Bjorn Basson and Yaw Penxe each touched down eight times.

"Congratulations to Rabz and Tian for earning these prestigious PRO14 awards," Alexander said via a press statement.

"This a tough competition with top-class players, and for two players from our South African teams to be among the nine award winners is a fantastic achievement. Their class and consistency this season was admirable, and we are all very proud of them.

"It was also rewarding to see a handful of other Cheetahs and Southern Kings players finish among the top point and try-scorers in the competition. This certainly shows the quality of our players."

List of winners:

Players' Player of the Year: Bill Mata (Edinburgh Rugby)

Coach of the Season: Kieran Crowley (Benetton Rugby)

PRO14 Chairman’s Award: Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby)

Next-Gen Star of the Season: Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors)

Golden Boot: Jaco van der Walt (Edinburgh Rugby)

Top Try-scorer: Rabz Maxwane (Cheetahs)

Tackle Machine: James King (Ospreys Rugby)

Turnover King: Olly Robinson (Cardiff Blues)

Iron Man: Tian Schoeman (Cheetahs)