Marx’s reaction after becoming fourth Springbok to win World Rugby honour

Two-time World Cup winner Malcolm Marx has become just the fourth Springbok to be named World Rugby Player of the Year, with the front-rower dedicating the prestigious honour to his teammates and South Africa.

World Rugby announced the recipients of Player of the Year and Breakthrough Player of the Year on Saturday evening. All Blacks lock Fabian Holland took out the other award, selected ahead of finalists Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Henry Pollock and Ethan Hooker.

Marx received the top individual honour in men’s rugby ahead of fellow Springboks Ox Nche and Pieter-Steph du Toit, and France’s Louise Bielle-Biarrey. Du Toit was looking to join Dan Carter and Richie McCaw as the only three-time winners of the award.

The Springboks enforcer has become the first hooker since Ireland’s Keith Wood in 2001 to be crowned the Player of the Year. Marx has started in all of his 11 Test appearances this season, scoring five tries throughout The Rugby Championship.

Marx played at least 70 minutes in TRC wins over the Wallabies and Los Pumas, before another massive shift against France during the Quilter Nations Series. The hooker has joined countrymen du Toit, Bryan Habana and Schalk Burger as the only Boks to have won the award.

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in to be honest,” Marx told reporters.

“To be fair, none of this is achieved without the team environment we have, without the management, without the players.

“We are a tight-knit group and things like this happen when you have a group that we have.

“In my opinion this isn’t just for me an individual award, I think it’s more a team award because the support and the structures that we have for guys to express themselves is unbelievable.

“It’s not just for me, it’s for our team, it’s for South Africa.”

South Africa brought a 13-year Dublin drought to an end with a win over Ireland at the Aviva Stadium. Damian Willemse opened the scoring inside the first few minutes, before Ireland lock James Ryan was shown a red card midway through the first term.

Sam Prendergast was later sent to the sin bin. The Boks extended their advantage through dynamic scrum-half Cobus Reinach, before a penalty try just before the break saw the visitors take a 19-7 lead into the sheds.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu crossed for the only try of the second half, as the Boks held on for a historic win in Dublin. South Africa still have one more match to play in 2025, taking on Wales in Cardiff next weekend.

“It was obviously a tough game,” Marx said.

“We know what a quality side they are and what a quality pack they have.

“We knew it was going to be tough so we obviously had to grind it out and try and put as much pressure as we could throughout the game, to try and get reward from it.

“I thought they did extremely well in the second half where they held us out. We had a few penalties and all of that. They’re a quality side, I think tonight they showed that.”