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USA international Andrew Durutalo has been named to an All-Time Sunwolves XV selected by Super Rugby. The team was chosen using the same statistical model employed for the competition’s weekly XVs, and ranked the former Eagles back row as the best openside flanker for the Japanese franchise.
Durutalo spent just one season with the team, the inaugural campaign in 2016, but he made a big impression. Playing a dozen games and all but one as a starter, he carried over a hundred times and is one of only Sunwolves forwards to records more than ten clean breaks in a season.
The team includes Rugby World CUp 2019 stars Shota Horie, Timothy Lafaele, Kenki Fukuoka, and Kotaro Matsushima. Players from New Zealand, South Africa, and Fiji bolster the selection with outstanding goal-kicker Hayden Parker selected as flyhalf and named the team’s all-time best player.
With the threat of cancellation looming over the remainder of the 2020 Super Rugby season and the Sunwolves to leave the competition in 2021, it could be that the franchise has already played its last game. In 67 matches played the team has won just nine games with one draw.
