James King and Olly Robinson flew the flag for Welsh rugby as they were among the prize-winners at the Guinness PRO14 awards night in Dublin.
Ospreys back-rower King picked up the title of Ronseal Tackle Machine after a regular-season campaign that saw him finish with an extraordinary 96.6 percent tackle-completion rate.
Robinson bagged a newly introduced accolade, namely the Big Red Cloud Turnover King Award.
The Cardiff Blue achieved 26 possession steals over the season.
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It is a commendable effort by the pair.
King missed only eight tackles all term and made 224 in total.
There were others who put in more hits than the 28-year-old, with the Kings’ Tienie Burger (277), Robinson (274) and Olly Cracknell (259) leading the way.
But none of them could match the completion rate of the ultra-reliable King, the 11-cap Wales international who last started a Test back in 2016.
Underlining his worth to the Ospreys, he also excelled in other areas, putting in 174 carries and finishing joint-second in the table of line-out steals.
Robinson also deserves a major pat on the back.
The Englishman's ability to pilfer opposition ball helped fuel Cardiff Blues’ fluent brand of rugby, with team-mate Nick Williams next in the turnover chart with 23 and the Ospreys’ young centre Owen Watkin managing 20.
Edinburgh Rugby ruled the night with three winners at the event in the Irish capital.
Their No. 8 Viliame Mata, fly-half Jaco van der Walt and hooker Ross Ford all bagged silverware, with half-man, half-tractor Mata named players’ player of the season after a campaign that saw him carry the ball a prodigious 290 times. He edged out the Scarlets' Johnny McNicholl and Benetton's Monty Ioane.
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Van der Walt claimed the Gilbert Golden Boot with a goal-kicking accuracy of 86.84 percent, while Ford, who is retiring as a player, won the Chairman’s Award for his longevity in the championship.
Two South African players were also honoured.
Rabz Maxwane’s 14 tries saw him win the top-try scorer bauble, while Tian Schoeman’s accumulation of 1,564 minutes meant he was the Dacia Iron Man winner for 2018-19.
Coach-of-the-year gong went to Kieran Crowley for his feat of guiding Benetton into the playoffs for the first time, while the talented Glasgow fly-half Adam Hastings went home as Energia Next-Gen Star of the Season.
LIST OF WINNERS
- Guinness Player’s Player of the Year: Bill Mata (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Guinness Coach of the Season: Kieran Crowley (Benetton Rugby)
- Guinness PRO14 Chairman’s Award: Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Energia Next-Gen Star of the Season: Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors)
- Gilbert Golden Boot: Jaco van der Walt (Edinburgh Rugby)
- SportPesa Top Try-scorer: Rabz Maxwane (Toyota Cheetahs)
- Ronseal Tackle Machine: James King (Ospreys Rugby)
- Big Red Cloud Turnover King: Olly Robinson (Cardiff Blues)
- Dacia Iron Man: Tian Schoeman (Toyota Cheetahs)
