The SA Rugby Awards have come and gone but I feel that Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira should have been named the Young Player of the Year. This was daylight robbery! How could they give the award to Rob Ebersohn ahead of Beast and even Ryan Kankowski? I honestly thought that Beast had this award in the bag but I am still left stumped as to why he did not win it.

Let us look more closely at the nominees, Beast and Rob. Beast had a great Super 14 in which he made the loose head position his own for the Sharks. I can not recall a Sharks player being loved as much as Beast. Getting the entire Shark Tank to chant your name whenever you touch the ball is special and you need to be a special player to receive that honour. After the Super 14, Beast then went on to be a regular in the Springbok setup. He held his own in the Tri-Nations and has continued with that form in the end of year tour most notably against England last weekend. Who will forget that tackle he put in on England winger, Sackey! All in all, Beast had played 8 times for the Boks this year and 14 games in the Super 14 and played when called upon in the Currie Cup for the Sharks.

Now let’s look at what Rob Ebersohn did this year. Ebersohn had a great Vodacom Cup and was a standout player for the SA Under 20 side this year. He then went on to have a pretty promising Currie Cup season considering it was his debut season in the competition, I must say he did well. And this all pretty much what he achieved this year. Now compare that to Beast… It is a no brainer that Beast had the better year. Even Kanko was a better pick for the award. The Beast was robbed!