There may have been some eyebrows raised when Vodacom Bulls No 8 Cameron Hanekom was named man of the match despite his side enduring a shock loss to Northampton Saints in their Investec Champions’ Cup match on Saturday.
The man-of-the-match award normally goes to the winning side, but despite the Bulls physical and territorial superiority at Loftus, they conspired to lose the game, even with the heroics of Hanekom trying desperately to get them to the win.
The Bulls loose forward has been a revelation over the last year, and on Saturday he showed his class again, twice breaking away from the back of the scrum, beating defenders to score tries that honestly would make a defence coach cry.
Hanekom had no right to score either try, but it did keep his side in the hunt for a large part of the game, and allowed them to have some hope during the game.
It was only after the game though, that the extent of his exceptional performance was highlighted.
A post round email from the EPCR, which administers the Champions’ Cup, put it in perspective.
The first line is as telling as it is brutal. Hanekom made 141 metres this past weekend, more than any forward has made in a match since 2021.
Think about that for a moment - a competition that has seen the might of La Rochelle, Leinster and Toulouse dominate and rack up some massive victories - had a stat like that in a losing campaign.
And there was more. Hanekom had seven dominant carries in round 2 - the most of any player in the competition. He also had five offloads, also the most of any player in the tournament.
His post-contact metres was second for the round, and he was the second most successful attacker in the round - beating eight defenders in the match.
All that on top of two tries - and in a round where Toulouse put 60 on Exeter and there were 50 point scorelines against the Hollywoodbets Sharks and DHL Stormers, is some doing.
While his coach Jake White was a frustrated man at the way the Bulls lost this past weekend, he was smiling when asked about Hanekom’s performance, even though it seemed he didn’t want to put too much praise on him in a losing performance.
“You don't want to go on one guy who played really well, and he played well. But he plays well every time.He's got certain attributes that he does well, and he did them well today.”
White compared Hanekom to Juarno Augustus, who also had a storming game for Northampton, scoring a try as well.
“You look at Augustus at the back end of the game when he made that line break from the kickoff. That also shows you that sometimes you don't have to be too flashy - I'm not for one minute saying that that's a comparison. But sometimes just doing those things and understanding what you need to do in that game.
“So It was nice to see how well he can play but I mean I'd much rather have Augustus win the man-of-the-match match and we win the game - that would have been first prize.”
Hanekom made his debut for the Springboks against Wales this year, and his consistent form is likely to see him play many more tests for the Boks.