Marx has the inside lane

Springbok and Lions hooker Malcolm Marx leads the nominations for the SA Rugby Player-ofthe-Year 2017 awards with three, closely followed by four players who bagged two nominations each.

The 23-year-old Marx is nominated in the top category, SA Rugby Player-of-the-Year, as well as for Young Player and Super Rugby Player-of-the-Year.

Marx’s fellow-nominees for SA Rugby Player-of-the-Year are Springbok captain Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Jaco Kriel and Jan Serfontein, all of whom were in impressive form not only for the Boks, but also for their Super Rugby franchises this year.

The four players nominated in two categories are Jaco Kriel, Warrick Gelant, Curwin Bosch and Damian Willemse.

The awards for Coach and Team-of-the-Year are a straight shoot-out between three sides and their coaches – the Springbok Sevens team and Neil Powell, the Lions and Johan Ackermann and Western Province and John Dobson.

Powell led the Blitzboks to the World Rugby Sevens Series crown in 2016/17 and the team won a total of five tournaments; Ackermann’s Lions finished at the top of the Vodacom Super Rugby standings and were runners-up in the competition; and Dobson coached Western Province to titles in the Currie Cup Premier Division and the new SuperSport Rugby Challenge.

The winners will be announced early in the new season next year. – Own Correspondent