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England captain Owen Farrell fends off Samu Kerevi to be voted world's best inside centre
By Online Editors
England captain Owen Farrell has been voted the world’s best No. 12 by fans around the globe after fighting off the challenge of former Wallabies star Samu Kerevi in a poll on social media.
The 28-year-old claimed the victory with a slim winning margin of little over 50 percent on RugbyPass‘ Facebook and Instagram accounts as part of the Straight 8 Fan Vote campaign to determine the best player on the planet in each position.
Farrell and Kerevi were left as the last two players standing in the third and final round of the knockout bracket after having dispatched some household names in the prior two rounds.
After dispatching Argentina and Jaguares midfielder Jeronimo de la Fuente with ease in the first round, Farrell backed that up with a tight win against Springboks and Panasonic Wild Knights star Damian de Allende with more than 55 percent of the public’s backing.
On the other side of the draw, Kerevi had defeated Ireland and Leinster midfielder Robbie Henshaw after accruing 75 percent of the vote, before squeaking past blockbusting All Blacks sensation Ngani Laumape with around 55 percent of the fans’ approval.
Farrell's decorated career, however, proved too much for the 33-cap Australian to overcome.
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To have your say, click the stories on either the RugbyPass Facebook page (here) or the RugbyPass Instagram page (here).
RugbyPass Straight 8 Fan Vote World XV (as it stands)
1. N/A
2. Malcolm Marx (South Africa/NTT Communications Shining Arcs)
3. N/A
4. Maro Itoje (England/Saracens)
5. Eben Etzebeth (South Africa/Toulon)
6. Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa/Stormers)
7. Ardie Savea (New Zealand/Hurricanes)
8. Duane Vermeulen (South Africa/Kubota Spears)
9. N/A
10. N/A
11. Semi Radradra (Fiji/Bordeaux)
12. Owen Farrell (England/Saracens)
13. Manu Tuilagi (England/Leicester Tigers)
14. Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa/Toulouse)
15. Stuart Hogg (Scotland/Exeter Chiefs)
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Latest Comments
I would go as far as to say they trend towards the Ben Smith style engagement. Utter crap.
I don't think any All Black coach has had a tougher first year than this (so to here that they did that is really poor).
They is of course the sky production, the producer behind the scenes. They select commentators to deliver on that content they're going to provide them with, which means they have to be 'yes' mean. Mills is the A grade yes man. Actually really please Mills seems to be acting stronger, more with his own personality these days, and the game day commentry teams have bee pretty good imo. Bates, Steven, Shields, even that italian player was alright last week.
Go to commentsAs Naas would say... A win is a win.
It was not perfect and at times frustrating. All 3 tests were not the best by the Boks and they still found ways to win.
Rassie would have noted the sloppyness at times and silly mistakes. The 9's made amateur handling mistakes when clearing the rucks in all 3 tests.
Once the "stupid" mistakes are eliminated, this Bok team will be very very hard to beat.
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