Senatla follows in the footsteps of teammates Cecil Afrika, who won the Award in 2011 as well as Werner Kok in 2015.

In accepting the award, Senatla thanked his BlitzBokke teammates, saying: “I really feel like I didn’t do a whole lot of work. The work was done by (my teammates) who put me into space. This is their award more than mine.”

Senatla was nominated together with France’s Veremi Vakatawa as well as Fiji Sevens captain Osea Kolinisau whom Senatla was first to embrace following the announcement.

Sevens in South Africa received a further honour on the night when popular Sevens and test referee Rasta Rasivhenge was named a joint winner of the Referee of the Year Award. He shares the 2016 award with colleague and good friend, Alhambra Nievas from Spain.

Former Springboks captain, Jean de Villiers, was honoured by his peers, receiving the International Rugby Players’ Association Special Merit Award.

Ahead of the naming of the final award of the evening, former South African Olympic swimmer, HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco, announced that next year’s World Rugby Awards would be hosted in the Principality of Monaco. – Source: www.blitzbokke.com