Super Rugby stars who activated beastmode

STAT ATTACK: Across the last decade of Super Rugby action there have been but a handful of players who have carried their team’s workload in both attack and defence.

Super Rugby has seen plenty of players pick up the slack over the last decade. Some do so by moving their team up the field with incessant carries, others do so by taking the bulk of the defensive responsibility upon their old shoulders and some further do so with their organisation.

Few have had the determination and ability to spread their industrious ethos across both offensive and defensive facets of the game.

Only six players in that period have managed to make 15+ carries and 15+ tackles in a game on more than one occasion, and none have done so more than thrice.

There are three South Africans in that group of six. They are Pieter-Steph du Toit, Schalk Burger and Marcell Coetzee.

Matt Hodgson (three times) boasts the most of them. The Western Force flank did so once in each the 2012, 2014, and 2016 campaigns, with every one of the three instances happening on home turf. The Force lost each of those games.

Of the 27 times in the last 10 seasons that a player has managed this feat in a game, Matt Hodgson (three times) boasts the most of them. The Western Force flank did so once in each the 2012, 2014, and 2016 campaigns, with every one of the three instances happening on home turf. The Force lost each of those games.

The decade’s most tireless performance belongs to none other than David Pocock, however. He may have only managed to make 15+ carries and tackles in a game once in the span, but he certainly went above and beyond in doing so. During the Western Force’s 3-17 defeat to the Stormers in April 2012, David Pocock become the only player in the last decade to make 20+ carries and 20+ tackles in a single Super Rugby game.

Source: SANZAAR