Bok World Cup winner headlines Premiership Team of the Season
SPOTLIGHT: Four South African players are featured in the Premiership Team of the Season.
Homeward-bound World Cup-winning Springbok Jasper Wiese headlines the SA contingent.
He is joined in the selection by Tyrone Green, Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Thomas Du Toit.
Harlequins’ Fin Baxter is rewarded for a terrific breakthrough season by being named loosehead prop in the Premiership Team of the Season.
The 22-year-old is joined in the front row by Northampton Saints hooker Curtis Langdon and Bath’s try-scoring machine Thomas du Toit at tighthead.
In the second row, Saints’ Alex Coles is joined by Exeter Chiefs Rusi Tuima with the duo both looking to secure a regular spot in Steve Borthwick’s England squad on the back of a stellar campaign in the Premiership.
The back row was very hotly contested with another Northampton Saints forward Player of the Season nominee Courtney Lawes joined by England’s Player of the Six Nations Ben Earl of Saracens at flank and at No.8 Leicester Tigers powerhouse Jasper Wiese chosen in the XV after another impressive season.
Bath captain Ben Spencer is selected at scrumhalf and is joined by a fourth Saint in Fin Smith in the No.10 jersey.
The duo collected Player of the Month awards this season and impressively marshalled their sides to home play-off ties.
In the centres, Player of the Season Henry Slade of Exeter Chiefs is joined by Bristol Bears’ Benhard Janse van Rensburg.
Having missed out on England selection for the World Cup 2023, Slade hit the ground running which was all the more impressive given the departures at Sandy Park over the off-season.
Centre partner Janse van Rensburg was pivotal to the Bears late-season push, narrowly falling short of the play-offs, with the South African the standout player at Ashton Gate.
Finally, in the back three, Breakthrough Player of the Season Exeter Chiefs’ Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Premiership Top Try scorer Ollie Sleightholme of Northampton Saints – the fifth player from the league leaders – are selected on the wings.
Harlequins fullback Tyrone Green is the final player chosen for the Premiership Team of the Season.
As well as scoring the Premiership Try of the Season, the South African has been among the most dangerous players all season.
Premiership Team of the Season: 15 Tyrone Green (Harlequins), 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs), 13 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), 12 Benhard Janse van Rensburg (Bristol Bears), 11 Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints), 10 Fin Smith (Northampton Saints), 9 Ben Spencer (Bath), 8 Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers), 7 Ben Earl (Saracens), 6 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), 5 Alex Coles Northampton Saints), 4 Rusi Tuima (Exeter Chiefs), 3 Thomas Du Toit (Bath ), 2 Curtis Langdon (Northampton Saints), 1 Fin Baxter (Harlequins).
