In the week that he won the Guinness Premiership's golden boot, Newcastle Falcons fly half Jimmy Gopperth has been named in the Opta team of the season for 2009-10.

The Kiwi's first year in English rugby saw him top the points charts in both the Premiership and European competition, but he has now added another honour to that list having been named the top fly half in the Premiership by renowned stats providers Opta.

In addition to topping the points table Gopperth made more tackles than any other Premiership fly half (127), as well as more carries (118) and more offloads (20).

He is joined in the Opta team of the season by Falcons captain Carl Hayman, who is named as the top tight head across the duration of the 22-game campaign.

As well as being the top-tackling prop in the competition Hayman's Falcons pack were dominant at scrum time, winning almost all of their own put-ins and turning over 20% of opposition feeds.

Opta's Premiership XV

15 Nick Abendanon
Bath

14 Chris Ashton
Northampton

13 Ben Jacobs
Wasps

12 Brad Barritt
Saracens

11 Bruce Rehiana
Northampton

10 Jimmy Gopperth
Newcastle

9 Ben Youngs
Leicester

1 Soane Tongauiha
Northampton

2 Schalk Brits
Saracens

3 Carl Hayman
Newcastle

4 Erik Lund
Leeds

5 Marco Wentzel
Leeds

6 Phil Dowson
Northampton

7 Steffon Armitage
London Irish

8 Dan Ward-Smith
Wasps