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IRB Player of the Year 2011

Who do you think should be the IRB International Player of the Year for 2011?

  • Thierry Dusatoir

    Votes: 16 21.6%
  • Will Genia

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • Jerome Kaino

    Votes: 28 37.8%
  • Ma'a Nonu

    Votes: 7 9.5%
  • David Pocock

    Votes: 17 23.0%
  • Piri Weepu

    Votes: 5 6.8%

  • Total voters
    74

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Nominees announced...

AUCKLAND, 19 Oct. - The International Rugby Board has announced the shortlist of nominees for the IRB Player of the Year 2011 Award in association with Emirates Airline.The winner of the prestigious individual accolade will be announced at the IRB Awards ceremony at Vector Arena in Auckland on Monday, 24 October, a day after the Rugby World Cup 2011 champions are crowned.Four of the nominees are in the Rugby World Cup 2011 Final at Eden Park on Sunday with France captain Thierry Dusautoir joined by the New Zealand trio of scrum half Piri Weepu, flanker Jerome Kaino and centre Ma'a Nonu.The other two nominees are Australia's flanker David Pocock and scrum half Will Genia, who will both play against Wales in the Bronze Final on Friday. Pocock has been nominated for the second year in a row, having missed out to New Zealand captain Richie McCaw in 2010."The IRB Player of the Year Award is the ultimate accolade for a player to receive in his career. It takes on added significance in a Rugby World Cup year and takes into account player performances in all major internationals, including matches in the RBS 6 Nations and Tri Nations," said IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset."The list of past winners of this prestigious award is very impressive and comprises players of the calibre of Schalk Burger, Dan Carter, Jonny Wilkinson, Bryan Habana, Shane Williams and Richie McCaw, the only player to have received the coveted award on more than one occasion."The IRB Player of the Year nominees were selected by the IRB Awards independent panel of judges, which is chaired by Australia's RWC 1999 winning captain John Eales and is made up of former internationals with more than 500 caps and four Rugby World Cup winners' medals between them.The IRB Awards panel comprises some of the biggest names in the Game with Will Greenwood, Gavin Hastings, Raphaël Ibanez, Francois Pienaar, Agustín Pichot, Scott Quinnell, Tana Umaga and Paul Wallace having deliberated on every major Test played in 2011, starting with the opening RBS 6 Nations match and culminating with the RWC Final.In total the panel have watched more than 100 hours of action, awarding points to the three players they thought stood out in each match. In order to recognise the importance of Rugby World Cup matches in determining the Player of the Year, an additional weighting has been applied to matches in the Tournament."This has been one of the closest years to date. In fact the result could be influenced significantly by the next two matches and that's what it should be like in a World Cup year," said panel chairman Eales. The IRB Player of the Year is one of 12 Awards that will be presented at the star-studded ceremony at Vector Arena, the others include the IRB Coach of the Year, IRB Team of the Year, IRB Sevens Player of the Year in association with HSBC, IRB Junior Player of the Year and IRB Women's Personality of the Year.

Previous winners of the IRB Player of the Year Award:
2010 – Richie McCaw (New Zealand)
2009 – Richie McCaw (New Zealand)
2008 – Shane Williams (Wales)
2007 – Bryan Habana (South Africa)
2006 – Richie McCaw (New Zealand)
2005 – Dan Carter (New Zealand)
2004 – Schalk Burger (South Africa)
2003 – Jonny Wilkinson (England)
2002 РFabien Galthi̩ (France)
2001 – Keith Wood (Ireland)
IRB

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/news/newsid=2059599.html#irb+player+year+nominees+announced

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Personally I think you have to go with Kaino, he's been a monster this year, particularly at the World Cup. Other than the last couple of games, and one or two earlier in the year, Weepu hasn't done much. Nonu hasn't been a stand out for me, but maybe that's just me...

Dusautoir hasn't been particularly spectacular - he's been solid, bit I wouldn't say player of the year material. Pocock's been pretty nifty, right up there, though I don't think he's been as influential as Kaino. I haven't been that impressed with Genia in the international season, he had a great Super Rugby run, though faded a bit at the end, and he's carried that into the international season, I feel.

Thoughts?
 
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Between Pocock and Kaino for me. Genia had a great beginning of the year while Weepu is having a great end of the year. Dusatoir and Nonu don't really come close for me.
 
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The interesting thing for me is that Pocock, Dusautoir, Nonu and Genia seem to be there on reputation, Weepu on current popularity and Kaino on performance.

Also all the past players that have won have been well established BEFORE they won, whereas Kaino has only really upped the ante this year - I think he's the best blind side flanker in the world currently.

Also of note, all players are involved in the matches this weekend.
 
Kinda surprised that Weepu is in there. He's had a great world cup especially the game against Argentina but I think coming into the world cup there wasn't much in it between him and Cowan in terms of our best half back.

Agree that it is likely going to be a race between Kaino and Pocock.
 
Between Pocock and Kaino for me. Weepu has had a very good year and Genia had a great beginning of the year while Weepu is having a great end of the year. Dusatoir and Nonu don't really come close for me.

Yeah Ill second that whole post adding that Nonu did go quiet for a bit this year, havent seen much of Dusatoir to comment.
 
Remember that WC matches are worth more points than that 'warm ups', so that's definitely pushed Weepu's cause - probably hasn't helped Genia's though.
 
Agree on Pocock vs Kaino
Hard to choose from thr two, Pocock stands out more in the Aussie pack, but that's more down to the players surroundig Kaino
Would be happy with either to be honest
Weepu also a contender however he didn't look that good for a while after his injury, only really getting back to form in the last few matches

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Bismark du Plessis doesn't like this list very much. Weepu? LOL

I would go with Dusotoir. Nonu had a good year, so maybe him. The rest have had average years imo. Pocock should win though, not legally of course, but he will win. :rolleyes:
 
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Bismark du Plessis doesn't like this list very much. Weepu? LOL

I would go with Dusotoir. Nonu had a good year, so maybe him. The rest have had average years imo. Pocock should win though, not legally of course, but he will win. :rolleyes:

Thats getting a bit boring. He got away with it good for him, like Brussow wouldn't have done the exact same thing if he could've.

But yeh, BDP must be hating PDV even more now.
 
BdP would be a shoe in if he'd had more than 80 mins rugby - bet he can't wait for Smit to get on the plane to London



Thinking about it, Sean O'Brien is unlucky to miss out, think he's had a better year than Dusautoir

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Thats getting a bit boring. He got away with it good for him, like Brussow wouldn't have done the exact same thing if he could've.

But yeh, BDP must be hating PDV even more now.

Was meant as a joke. It's not Pocock's fault Bryce Lawrence is a cheat. Pocock is the best 7 in the world.
 
Bismark du Plessis doesn't like this list very much. Weepu? LOL

I would go with Dusotoir. Nonu had a good year, so maybe him. The rest have had average years imo. Pocock should win though, not legally of course, but he will win. :rolleyes:

Kaino average year? he has been a total beast. He's the NZ Juan Smith
 
Well I can understand why there's no South Africans on the list, purely because our stalwarts only played 1 and a half tri-nations games and World Cup, so the Aussies and the All Blacks players had more games to get points and so on...

But why isn't there any NH players on the list apart from Dusutoir that lead his team to World Cup final?? I'm sure there was a six nations tournament in 2011 or does all the adjudicators have long-term memory loss??

Seems to me the judges only used the world cup as judging platform, because Weepu didn't play a couple of tri-nations matches and from the list some guys don't deserve to be there... Kaino, yeah he's had a good World Cup; Genia, Meh: Pocock, probably the most deserving player on the list with Nonu a close 2nd...

Just looks to me they took a bunch of names threw it into the hat and pulled names... none of us would have disagreed if guys like Francois Hougaard, Sam Warburton, Sean O'brien, Adam Kleeberger would have made the list... instead they picked guys out of the teams still left in the tournament, with 2 of those teams already losing 2 matches in the Tournament, which is more than other teams, and based on individual performance... some of these guys shouldn't be there
 
Kaino average year? he has been a total beast. He's the NZ Juan Smith

He has been good, but not as good as Warburton, Pocock, or Sean O Brian in my opinion. Kaino did nothing special in the Super 15 for me either. I can see why you compare him to Smith though. Very similar players.

I'm quite sad Victor Matfield wasn't nominated in his last year. The greatest line out specialist the game has ever seen, yet he has never won this award. When Fourie du Preez and Brian O Driscoll lost out to McCaw in 2009 though, was when I officially wrote off any worth that this award has anyway. I really can't understand how Weepu is there. In the 30 minutes a game that Bismark does play for the Springboks, he makes a bigger impact than any other player in the world on the game. I really would have had him on that list ahead of Weepu. Might just be my Springbok bias. Anyway, as long as a Wallacheat doesn't win, then congrats to whoever takes it!
 
O'Brien is unlucky, he has been on superb form throughout the year, also unlucky to miss out is Mamuka Gorgodze: he's immense!

Weepu is the most undeserving player there, only just become All Blacks first choice for the last couple of matches, Cowan was preferred during the Tri Nations and he missed the start of the year with a leg injury

I like Dusautoir, he is the best European openside in my opinion, Warburton second
 

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