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The All Blacks 'Player of the Year' - as voted by his peers
By Online Editors
NZ Herald: Ardie Savea has been voted the best All Black of 2019 by his peers.
The New Zealand Rugby Players Association have announced their award winners for the season, as voted by the players.
Savea won the players' international men's player of the year award, beating out All Blacks teammates Beauden Barrett, Anton Lienert-Brown, Kieran Read and Codie Taylor.
Savea, who played nine tests for the All Blacks in 2019, was nominated for the World Rugby player of the year award following the Rugby World Cup but lost out to SpringbokPieter-Steph du Toit.
The All Blacks loose forward is facing a lengthy injury layoff in 2020, announcing earlier this month he will undergo knee surgery and will miss most of the Super Rugby season for the Hurricanes.
In other awards categories, Charmaine McMenamin was named players' international women's player of the year, Tone Ng Shui took out players' men's seven's player of the year and Ruby Tui the players' women's seven's player of the year.
Crusaders winger Sevu Reece won players' Super Rugby player of the year award and Bay of Plenty's Chase Tiatia the players' Mitre 10 Cup player of the year award.
The New Zealand Rugby awards take place on Thursday night.
Beauden Barrett, Lienert-Brown and Savea have all been nominated for All Blacks Player of the Year while Black Ferns Kendra Cocksedge, Ayesha Leti-I'iga and McMenamin are all up for Black Ferns Player of the Year.
This article was first published in the New Zealand Herald and is republished here with permission.
The Season 5 - Episode 5
A single kick ends up being the difference between a successful season or a failed campaign and Hamilton hearts are tested in the Tauranga rain.
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There is this thing going around against Siya Kolisi where they don't want him to be known as the best national captain ever, so they strike him down in ratings permanently whenever they can. They want McCaw and reckons he is the best captain ever. I disagree.
Just like they refuse to see SA as the best team and some have even said that should the Boks win a third WC in a row, they will still not be the best team ever. Even if they win every game between now and the WC. That is some serious hate coming SA's way.
Everyone forget how the McCaw AB's intimidated refs, was always on the wrong side, played on the ground etc. Things they would never have gotten away with today. They may have a better win ratio, but SA build depth, not caring about rank inbetween WC's until this year.
They weren't as bad inbetween as people claim, because non e of their losses was big ones and they almost never faced the strongest Bok team outside of the WC, allowing countries like France and Ireland to rise to the top unopposed.
Rassie is still at it, building more depth, getting more young stars into the fold. By the time he leaves (I hope never) he will leave a very strong Bok side for the next 15- 20 years. Not everyone will play for 20 years, but each year Rassie acknowledge the young stars and get them involved and ready for international rugby.
Not everyone will make it to the WC, but those 51/52 players will compete for those spots for the WC. They will deliver their best. The future of the Boks is in very safe hands. The only thing that bothers me is Rassie's health. If he can overcome it, rugby looks dark for the rest of the rugby world. He is already the greatest coach in WR history. By the time he retires, he will be the biggest legend any sport has ever seen
Go to commentsWas it? I just brought it up in some of my posts to rub it in that the AB last year nearly put 100 on a top 6N side lol
I agree to be honest. The biggest key to me that they might be jadded was none of them had mom performances, or even as good as their last three games.
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