Fourie du Preez wins Sport24's Performance of the Month Award

With 49.51 percent of the 4358 reader votes, Du Preez edged out his Bok coach Peter de Villiers, who earned 31 percent of the votes for leading the Boks to Tri-Nations success, and Proteas captain Graeme Smith (10.3 percent), who tried in vain to keep his side in the ICC Champions Trophy with a magical century.

What a lot of plonkers ...

In the more tongue-in-cheek Plonker of the Month category, Leonard Chuene didn't stand much chance. After blaming everyone but himself and his organisation for the Caster Semenya debacle, we then learnt he lied about not knowing about gender tests conducted on Semenya - and also ignored advice to withdraw her from the World Athletics Championships. For this he received a whopping 80 percent of the votes, proving that Sport24 readers don't take kindly to liars. The Proteas lived up to their tag as “chokers” on the big occasion, (not even able to win this competition) coming in second (11.5 percent) for their tail-between-the-legs exit from the ICC Champions Trophy. Bafana Bafana's dismal run of six defeats in a row before “bouncing back” to beat “mighty” Madagascar 1-0, saw them finish in third spot with 6.3 percent of the votes to round off a woeful month for our national cricket and football sides. Thankfully, the Springboks have kept the national flag flying high ...