IRB Player of the year 2012

[austingtir]

Out of the NZ candidates Richie is the only one with a chance and its a good chance. He has been outstanding and other than the first two tests of the irish series i think he's been steets ahead of anyone i have seen.

Read imo hasnt been as influential as he could of been.
Carter appears to be getting better.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Funilly enough I actually want McCaw to get it this year. Think its thoroughly deserved (and just a tad lucky that Habana got injured ) and he has been targeted so much off the ball by all and sundry and just shrugs it off and keeps going. McCaw winning it would just be that little bit of egg in those player's (and there's been at least one from every nations facing him) faces that he won't stoop to condemning (and thus recognizing) in the press.

 

[Darwin]

I find Michalak's inclusion a bit strange given he hasn't played much test football this year (5 tests?). Too be fair I didn't see any of those tests so I can only assume he was outstanding in all of them (which may well have been the case!).

 

[Big Ewis]

Gunning for Michelak to win it, but expect McCaw to. Would of liked to see either Habana or Etzebeth get a nomination, especially seeing as Owen '' Crazy eyes '' Farrell got the nod.

Is that his official nickname, now ?!
His concentration episodes for kicks are the most entertaining part of watching England play !
juuuuuuust kiiiiiiiddiiiiiiiiiiiiiinng !!!


....

no but seriously it's the best part !

 

[Black_Magic]

I find Michalak's inclusion a bit strange given he hasn't played much test football this year (5 tests?). Too be fair I didn't see any of those tests so I can only assume he was outstanding in all of them (which may well have been the case!).

As far as I remember he was very good in 4 of them (all won), while in the first (lost) test in Argentina he only came from the bench for the final 20 minutes or so.

 

[Irishflanker]

As far as I'm aware the decision is made by watching test matches only and points are assigned to the best three players in each game, from the 6N through to the AI's; which leads me to assume that kicking your team to victory would place you fairly high up on the influence charts, hence Farrells nomination (not that I agree with it in the slightest.) I am open to correction on this, but to the best of my knowledge that is the (flawed) system in place.

For what its worth I'd have a list of:
McCaw
Read
Carter
Lobbe
Healy (Has been thoroughly consistent and is an animal around the park)
Michalak (On the aforemetioned selection criteria he deserves it)
Lydiate
Picamoles

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

http://www.sporcle.com/games/SquidgyGoat/irb-player-of-the-year-nominees
QUIZ: Can you guess all the players nominated for the IRB Player of the Year award? Because nobody could guess this years...

Read has been head & shoulders above every other player in the world. Yet an England benchwarmer gets the nod ahead of him. Maddening.

 

[austingtir]

http://www.sporcle.com/games/SquidgyGoat/irb-player-of-the-year-nominees
QUIZ: Can you guess all the players nominated for the IRB Player of the Year award? Because nobody could guess this years...

Read has been head & shoulders above every other player in the world. Yet an England benchwarmer gets the nod ahead of him. Maddening.

Read had been good in patches i honestly dont agree that he's been head and shoulders above every other player though. Over a year ago yes but not this year.

 

[RyotoTheDragon]

Read had been good in patches i honestly dont agree that he's been head and shoulders above every other player though. Over a year ago yes but not this year.

I honestly thought kaino was ahead of both read n macaw last year. This year though, Read has been our best forward. He carries well, defends well (except for last week) and handles the ball well.

I dont think he has been head and shoulders above evryone else but he is ahead of everyone. Opinions, evryone has one.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Kaino was by far the best player in the All Blacks (and the world) last year, Read was also brilliant, and started this season very well with a couple of super performances early on. Over the latter half of the season he has not been quite as good.

 

[RWC2011Fan]

And so it goes to Dan Carter, while Steve Hansen earns coach of the year and guess who the team of the year was...

 

[psychic duck]

I wish the IRB would look for some interesting stories outside the established.

Madagascar for example, lost 112-0 to Namibia in 2002 and then 10 years later beat them in a classic encounter. That turnaround should be given credit in awards like this, New Zealand this year aren't even quite as good as they were last year, or in the 2005/06 period anyway. Just with Australia crocked and South Africa in a rebuilding phase the challengers haven't been at their best.

 

[Big Ewis]

^ well no offense but, obviously nobody gives a darn about that Madagascar story. It's just not world-scale worthy. It's the truth, please don't get angry AGAIN at me for nothing. It's just the obvious, obvious truth.

However, you're right about the AB's. Challengers haven't been what they once were this year, but I think ppl are already starting to exaggerate NZ's level of play these past few months though. They play a mediocre game in Cardiff, then lose in England - and all of a sudden they haven't played their best and all their recent past excellence goes to ruin in a sentence. Not saying you're saying this, but a lot are completely diminishing the AB's entire year's worth based on that loss.

 

[psychic duck]

^ well no offense but, obviously nobody gives a darn about that Madagascar story. It's just not world-scale worthy. It's the truth, please don't get angry AGAIN at me for nothing. It's just the obvious, obvious truth.

Typical ignorant yoe91 prattling on again. Plenty of people have cared about Madagascar actually, their win was featured on Total Rugby, RugbyDump etc and many fans who knew about it are now backing them as a second team to qualify for Africa 1.

I think the fact a side can comeback from an 112-0 loss and then beat the same side 10 years later is an incredible turnaround. Just because you and people are so stupid that I bet you could hardly put most of the Tier 2 teams on a map and probably the fact they had a rugby team at all would probably be news to you. You run your mouth an incredible amount about rugby for somebody who knows so little.

I don't think that New Zealand have been as remarkably good as they have been in some other years. Giving Hansen the coach of the year award is like giving Roberto Mancini with dozens of players and resources available manager of the year when Everton with who have a tiny squad and little transfer budget reached 7th, which for me is at least an equal achievement to winning the league with a side like Man City.

It would have taken a enormously dreadful coach for the All Blacks not to have been #1 this year imo. I don't think it is necessarily a big achievement of Hansen himself. It is a much harder job for example to coach Samoa to 7th imo considering the circumstances of the job.

However, you're right about the AB's. Challengers haven't been what they once were this year, but I think ppl are already starting to exaggerate NZ's level of play these past few months though. They play a mediocre game in Cardiff, then lose in England - and all of a sudden they haven't played their best and all their recent past excellence goes to ruin in a sentence. Not saying you're saying this, but a lot are completely diminishing the AB's entire year's worth based on that loss.

Most All Black fans like TRF_nickdnz have themselves noted that the side was stronger in 2011 with the likes of Thorn and Kaino in the pack actually. Nobody is "diminishing the AB's entire year based on one loss". Just the fact is that this year's side is not as good as some recent previous editions and hasn't hit top gear for most of it and is capable of dominating a lot more.

By the way I'm not demanding Madagascar should be the team of the year, just noting that it was a great achievement and trying to get people to know that other teams do in fact exist.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Nobody else noticed that Richie McCaw entered the stage through the wrong side?




Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[Larksea]

thought carter would get it even though he's not been as good as McCaw this year.

 

[nickdnz]

Nobody else noticed that Richie McCaw entered the stage through the wrong side?

Hahaha.

Pleased for Carter. To be honest I guess he's as deserving of this award as any other nominee - there haven't been many others who in my mind have stuck their hand up over the course of the year.

 

[admartian]

Congrats DC!


Has anyone cried "rigged" or "NZ ARE FAVOURED!!" yet?

 

[austingtir]

Typical ignorant yoe91 prattling on again. Plenty of people have cared about Madagascar actually, their win was featured on Total Rugby, RugbyDump etc and many fans who knew about it are now backing them as a second team to qualify for Africa 1.

I think the fact a side can comeback from an 112-0 loss and then beat the same side 10 years later is an incredible turnaround. Just because you and people are so stupid that I bet you could hardly put most of the Tier 2 teams on a map and probably the fact they had a rugby team at all would probably be news to you. You run your mouth an incredible amount about rugby for somebody who knows so little.

I don't think that New Zealand have been as remarkably good as they have been in some other years. Giving Hansen the coach of the year award is like giving Roberto Mancini with dozens of players and resources available manager of the year when Everton with who have a tiny squad and little transfer budget reached 7th, which for me is at least an equal achievement to winning the league with a side like Man City.

It would have taken a enormously dreadful coach for the All Blacks not to have been #1 this year imo. I don't think it is necessarily a big achievement of Hansen himself. It is a much harder job for example to coach Samoa to 7th imo considering the circumstances of the job.



Most All Black fans like TRF_nickdnz have themselves noted that the side was stronger in 2011 with the likes of Thorn and Kaino in the pack actually. Nobody is "diminishing the AB's entire year based on one loss". Just the fact is that this year's side is not as good as some recent previous editions and hasn't hit top gear for most of it and is capable of dominating a lot more.

By the way I'm not demanding Madagascar should be the team of the year, just noting that it was a great achievement and trying to get people to know that other teams do in fact exist.

I agree with you about Hansen but like all the other awards the team took everybody else was rubbish and i doubt the panel had many other realistic options to give the awards to.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Congrats DC!


Has anyone cried "rigged" or "NZ ARE FAVOURED!!" yet?

How can we when it was expected??

It would have been rigged if Farrel or Stuart Lancaster won anything...