The South African rugby star, Aphiwe Dyantyi, says he is honoured to be playing for the Springboks.
He was named World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year at the World Rugby Awards, which were held in Monaco on Sunday night.
Ireland cleaned up most of the other awards including Team of the Year, Johnny Sexton named Player of the Year, Coach of the Year (Joe Schmidt).
This year, Ireland won the Six Nations Grand Slam, claimed a series win over Australia and a clean sweep of the November Internationals, highlighted by that win over New Zealand.
In all, they won 11 of the 12 tests they played.
“From here for me, I’ll just keep challenging myself to keep on improving and to keep on making a difference – not only for my country but in someone else’s life. If they can look at my story and see that as an inspiration to do something great out there, not only in sport but in whatever field that they’re in. That for me is my ultimate goal. So yeah, truly honoured and really special to be standing here and truly appreciate this award,” says Dyantyi.
