Johannesburg — South Africa’s rugby players dominated the United Rugby Championship (URC) dream team, officially released by the tournament, on Tuesday.
In all, 10 players from the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers have been picked in the Dream XV, with the rest of the team represented by Ireland. The Stormers, as revealed in the statement, are the best-represented franchise with five players, followed by the Bulls with three, and the Sharks with two.
No Lions made the Dream XV, although an argument could be made for the missing Vincent Tshituka. There were no players selected from Italy, Scotland and Wales.
Irish outfits Ulster and Munster, meanwhile, are represented with two players each, while the table-topping and dominant Leinster, quite surprisingly, have a lone representative in flyhalf Ross Byrne.
The front-row of the Dream XV is an all SA combination with Sharks powerhouse prop Ox Nche, hooker Johan Grobbelaar of the Bulls and Sharks’ tighthead Thomas du Toit packing down together; and supported in a second row made up of the impressive Ruan Nortje, who was also honoured with the URC’s Ironman Award earlier this week, and Jean Kleyn of Munster.
Unsurprisingly, Bulls skipper Marcell Coetzee and Stormers wunderkind Evan Roos — both of which are statistically two of the best players in the tournament — were voted for by the media from the participating nations amongst the loose-trio.
The URC top try-scorer of the season, Leolin Zas of the Stormers, has also been selected for the team at the expense of Madosh Tambwe — at least from a SA perspective — and is joined by teammates Damian Willemse, Seabelo Senatla and Warrick Gelant in the backline.
The selection criteria, as explained by the statement, was as follows: “Players had to have made a minimum of nine appearances to be considered, with the media panel given a shortlist of 10 players per position, provided by URC StatMaster. The player with the most votes in each position earned a place in the team.”
The URC Next-Gen Star of the Season is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, with the Fans’ Player of the Season to be revealed on Thursday. The Coach of the Season and Player’s Player will be announced next week ahead of the final.
URC Dream team: 15 Warrick Gelant (Stormers), 14 Seabelo Senatla (Stormers), 13 James Hume (Ulster), 12 Damian Willemse (Stormers), 11 Leolin Zas (Stormers), 10 Ross Byrne (Leinster), 9 Craig Casey (Munster), 8 Evan Roos (Stormers), 7 Nick Timoney (Ulster), 6 Marcell Coetzee (Bulls), 5 Ruan Nortje (Bulls), 4 Jean Kleyn (Munster), 3 Thomas du Toit (Sharks), 2 Johan Grobbelaar (Bulls), 1 Ox Nche (Sharks)
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