Four Springbok stars have been nominated for the prestigious SA Rugby’s Men’s Player of the Year for 2025.
The four are Malcolm Marx, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ox Nche and Jasper Wiese, and they will contest from Haashim Pead, who played a key role for the Junior Boks in their World Rugby U20 Championship triumph.
Marx is the favourite after he was named World Rugby’s Men’s 15s Player of the Year last year, but it will not be an easy ride against his team-mates.
SA Rugby announced the nominees – as voted for by members of the media and national teams coaching staff – in nine categories on Friday.
Du Toit, a former winner of both SA Rugby and World Rugby’s top awards, and Nche were on the shortlist last year too, and both were also nominated for the World Rugby Awards.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu, like the other four, was named in World Rugby’s 2025 Dream Team, while Wiese equally had a stellar season for the Boks and has been nominated for the first time for the top award in South African rugby.
Meanwhile, in the women’s category, last year’s winner Nadine Roos has been nominated again for the SA Women’s Player of the Year Award.
She’s however pitted with four previous winners, Aseza Hele, Libbie Janse van Rensburg, and Babalwa Latsha.
The quartet, along with the fifth nominee, Byrhandré Dolf, all played key roles helping South Africa reach the Women’s Rugby World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in a watershed season for the Springbok Women.
Four of the five players nominated for the Young Player of the Year Award played Test rugby in 2025, Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ethan Hooker, Canan Moodie and Zachary Porthen.
The fifth nominee, Haashim Pead, played a key role for the Junior Boks in their World Rugby U20 Championship triumph.
Pead was also nominated in the category for Junior Springbok Player of the Year, along with SA U20 captain Riley Norton, and Cheswill Jooste.
Selvyn Davids, Shilton van Wyk and Impi Visser have been nominated for the Springbok Sevens Men’s Player of the Year Award, and the three were part of the Blitzbok squad that won the HSBC SVNS World Championship in Los Angeles in May.
The nominees for the Coach and Team of the Year Awards are Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks, Philip Snyman and the Blitzboks, and Kevin Foote and the Junior Boks, while Swys de Bruin also made the shortlist for the coach award after guiding the Bok Women to their best finish yet at a Rugby World Cup.
On the Carling Currie Cup front, Suzuki Griquas’ success in the Premier Division is underlined by nominations for Gurshwin Wehr and George Whitehead.
The two are up against the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers’ Donavan Don, and in the First Division, the NovaVit Griffons duo of Andrew Kota and Willem van den Hever will face a stern contest from Keagan Fortune of the Valke.
