The Free State Cheetahs (Pty) Ltd hosted their annual awards function on Friday evening at the newly named Toyota Stadium. 

Capping:

To qualify for Toyota Free State Cheetah colors, a player has to play in six consecutive Currie Cup matches, or in 10 Currie Cup matches in total for the team. 

At a different occasion a couple of players were already capped in 2015.  One player qualified in the meantime. 

Sergeal Petersen – Sergeal played in 9 Currie Cup matches for the Toyota Free State Cheetahs and scored 6 tries.

Special Awards:

A special award was given to Joe Beukes for his loyal service to Free State Rugby. 

Joe Beukes has made his mark in Free State Rugby since 5 Junie 1993 when he played his first match for the Cheetahs in ‘n Lion’s Cup match.   The last game he played was on the 7^th of May 2004 against the Blue Bulls at the age of 35 years and 323 days.

At the age of 38, Joe was on the bench against the SWD Eagles but didn’t go onto the field.  He captained the side in 24 of his 125 matches and scored 17 tries during his career for the Free State.

He also represented the Leopards, Pumas and Griffons putting his first rank total at 177 matches and 25 tries. 

Between 2006 and 2015 Joe was uninterruptedly part of the coaching structures of Free State Vodacom Cup and under 21-teams.  The Vodacom Cup team played in finals in 2008 and 2010.  Together with Pine Pienaar, Joe coached the Free State u.21 team who won in the final in 2009.  In 2010 and 2012 the team qualified for the semi-finals and in 2015 the final.

An award was given to a Free State officials who performed exceptionally well in 2015.  Jaco Peyper was the referee in the 2015 opening match of the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham between Fidji and England. 

He was the youngest referee in the Rugby World Cup tournament, the first Free State referee to take a whistle in a World Cup and is seen as one of the top 10 referees in the world. 

Jaco has refereed 29 test matches, putting him fifth on the list of SA test referees of all times.

He honoured to have blown the whistle in a Currie Cup final (2012 – at the age of 32 the youngest referee) and a Super Rugby final (2015)

In his career, Peyper has handled 29 test matches, 60 Super Rugby matches, 56 Currie Cups, 21 Vodacom Cups, 40 Sevens Rugby matches and seven Junior World Cup matches. 

A Toyota Player who represented Free State Rugby on the highest level was also given a special award.   Lood was one of the star players at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.  He played in all seven matches.  Since his test debut on the 14^th of June 2014 against Wales in Durban, he played 19 tests in total, including the Springbok’s World Cup match against Argentina which secured them a bronze medal.  

De Jager, only played 10 minutes for the Toyota Cheetahs before he was side-lined with an injury during the team’s first Super Rugby match on the 14^th of February 2015 in Durban.

Lood was awarded for his performance in the Rugby World Cup with an invitation to represent the International Barbarians in their last two matches of the 2015 season at Twickenham where he ran out in the starting line-up.  De Jager is one of the nominees for the SA Player of the Year and SA Young Player of the Year for 2015. 

PLAYER AWARDS

Toyota Free State Cheetahs u.19 Player of the Year

Charl Pretorius

Charl was one of four Free State players to represent the Toyota Free State u.19’s in all 13 matches, including the semi-final against Eastern Province.  He scored four tries for the Toyota Free State u.19 team in 2015. 

Toyota Free State Cheetahs u. 21 Player of the Year

Ox Nche 

Ox had a very busy 2015 season and played in 26 matches:  u.20 Rugby World Cup (5), Toyota Free State Cheetahs u.21 team (13), Vasity Cup (8). 

Together with Joseph Dweba, they were the only two Free State players who were included in the Junior Springbok team who participated in the u.21 Rugby World Cup in Italy.  Ox played in all five World Cup matches, including the match against France which secured the team a third place. 

Ox played in 13 of the 14 u.21 matches for the Toyota Free State Cheetahs u.21’s including the final against Western Province.  He passed the try line three times during the season.

Toyota Free State XV Vodacom Cup Player of the Year

Joubert Engelbrecht 

Joubert was the only Free State player to represent the team all eight Vodacom Cup matches for the Toyota Free State Fifteen.  He captained the side in four matches, including the last three matches of the season of which the Vodacom Cup quarterfinal against the Blue Bulls was one.  He scored two tries during the season. 

Toyota Free State Cheetahs Currie Cup Player of the Year - Sponsored by PWC

Shaun Venter

With one brilliant performance after another, Shaun managed to fill the void players like Piet van Zyl and Sarel Pretorius left, with extinction.  He crossed the try line four times in ten games and has already represented the Toyota Cheetahs in 18 Currie Cup games.  He has also played in four Vodacom Cup games for the Toyota Free State XV.

Toyota Cheetahs Super Rugby Player of the Year – sponsored by PWC

Francois Venter

Together with Boom Prinsloo, Carl Wegner and Torsten van Jaarsveld, Francois played in all 16 Super Rugby matches in 2015 in which he scored seven tries.  He captained the side in one match and was recently named as captain for the 2016 Super Rugby season. 

Francois is an experienced player who has 32 Super Rugby caps to his name. 

Toyota Free State Cheetahs Player’s Player of the Year

This special award for the Player’s Player of the Year is voted by the players themselves.  The player who received the most votes from his teammates was Francois Venter. 

Toyota Free State Cheetahs’ Player of the Year – Sponsored by PWC

This is our most prestigious award and the top honor of the night.

The award went to Francois Venter.

Francois had a really busy 2015 season where he played in 27 matches for the Cheetahs.  He represented the Toyota Cheetahs in 16 Super Rugby matches and in 11 Currie Cup games.  He captained the side twice during the Currie Cup. 

He has 20 Currie Cup Free State caps and at the end of the 2015 season Francois received an invitation to play for the International Barbarians in two matches in England.