Tom Stewart is named the first winner of the 2022/23 United Rugby Championship Awards.
Tom ended the season in stunning form for Ulster to soar to the top of the BKT URC try-scoring charts in record-breaking fashion.
The 22-year-old hooker went over eight times in his final four matches - including back-to-back hat-tricks - to move on to 16 tries.
It surpassed the feat achieved by Tim Visser (Edinburgh, 2010/11) and Rabz Maxwane (Cheetahs, 2018/19) by two tries.
He finished the regular season four clear, with Edinburgh's Darcy Graham his nearest challenger with 12 while Connacht's Caolin Blade had 11.
Simone Gesi (Zebre Parma), Rob Russell (Leinster) and Gavin Coombes (Munster) registered 10 tries while Grant Williams (Cell C Sharks) and Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) each had nine.
Tom often credits his tries to the work of his teammates but Ulster Head Coach, Dan McFarland, says that he deserves the credit of his record breaking achievement.
“Tom’s been brilliant. There is a skill to scoring tries off the back of a maul. Some of them are pretty easy, but some of them are pretty difficult and he’s worked hard for that,” he said.
“People think it’s just about dotting them down, but you need to read the timing when to break out of the back. He’s got a lot of decision-making to do and there’s a lot of skill in the execution.”
Tom will be hoping to carry his form from the league season into the play-off stages, as Ulster take on interprovincial rivals, Connacht, in Friday's Quarter- Final at Kingspan Stadium.
Full ticketing details, including corporate hospitality options, can be viewed at ulster.rugby/urcquarterfinal.