The England centre Emily Scarratt has been crowned the women’s world player of the year. The 29-year-old emulated former England colleagues Maggie Alphonsi and Sarah Hunter in winning the award.

She received it at World Rugby’s annual awards night in Tokyo, winning from a shortlist who included fellow England players Katy Daley-McLean and Sarah Bern, New Zealand’s Kendra Cocksedge and France’s Pauline Bourdon.

“It’s mad,” Scarratt said. “At the start of the season, I was still playing sevens, so I have come back to 15s and got my teeth back into it. There are some massively exciting times ahead, a big two years.

“ There is lots of rugby to play, and we want to use the next two years as best we can. We want to go to New Zealand [for the World Cup] in 2021 and come away with a gold medal.”

The men’s world champions, South Africa, landed three awards. The flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit won the world player title, becoming the third Springbok to win the award after Schalk Burger and Bryan Habana.

Du Toit has been in outstanding form all year, culminating in a memorable display during Saturday’s World Cup final when South Africa beat England 32-12.

Other nominations were the Wales captain, Alun Wyn Jones, the England flanker Tom Curry, the Springboks wing Cheslin Kolbe, the New Zealand flanker Ardie Savea and the USA forward Joe Taufete’e.

The coach of the year award went to Rassie Erasmus. Eddie Jones, Warren Gatland, Jamie Joseph and Steve Hansen were nominated. The Springboks side were named the team of the year. England, Wales, Japan and New Zealand also received nominations in the team category but South Africa’s triumph was recognised when their captain, Siya Kolisi, received the award from the World Rugby vice-chairman, Agustín Pichot.

The England wing Joe Cokanasiga missed out on the breakthrough player title. The award went to France’s Romain Ntamack. There was English success in the referee category, which was won by Wayne Barnes.

The former Ireland No 8 Jamie Heaslip, who won 95 caps and retired in February 2018, received the International Rugby Players’ special merit award.

The try of the year went to the New Zealand scrum-half TJ Perenara following a stunning score in the World Cup pool game against Namibia.