IRB Player of the Year 2011 Award.

The International Rugby Board has announced the shortlist of nominees for the IRB Player of the Year 2011 Award.

The nominees are:
Thierry Dusautoir, France
Piri Weepu, New Zealand
Jerome Kaino, New Zealand
Ma’a Nonu, New Zealand
David Pocock, Australia
Will Genia, Australia

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 – Fabien Galthié (France)
2001 – Keith Wood (Ireland)

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/ne...nees+announced

Genia's international form has unfortunately been average. Weepu played well last weekend and the weekend before and that's about it. Haven't seen enough of Dusautoir. I reckon it will be between Nonu, Pocock and Kaino. I'd favour the latter two.

Yeah Nonu's had his cold games this year too.....I can't say Kaino stands out in my head

Out of those six, Pocock stands tall - very rare to get an average game out of him (you know what I mean). However, in RWC years the winner will come from the champions, so I'd reckon on Dusautoir or Kaino to get the nod.

Is it me, or does this All Black team not have any stand-out players? They are all good and together they are a great team, but even Carter was slightly underwhelming in the group stages.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sheikh

Out of those six, Pocock stands tall - very rare to get an average game out of him (you know what I mean). However, in RWC years the winner will come from the champions, so I'd reckon on Dusautoir or Kaino to get the nod.

Is it me, or does this All Black team not have any stand-out players? They are all good and together they are a great team, but even Carter was slightly underwhelming in the group stages.

---

I have to disagree with you there. Was talking to a NZ mate of mine comparing each allblack player to each wallaby player. Dagg, Jane, Nonu, Carter, Weepu, Read, Mccaw, Kaino, Mealamu, Franks are all stand out players in my books, and all have the edge over their australian counterparts unfortunately.

And boy does it suck having a NZ mate...really should have waited til after the match before I started all the "choke" talk

You can't make those comparisons. Pocock is better than McCaw. No question about it. If McCaw had Samo and Elsom next to him he would look decidedly average.

Weepu isn't generally better than Genia. Have you seen him provincially in the last couple of years? Genia just has the struggle of working behind a pack that is being dominated by the ABs. Dagg and Beale are equal IMHO- Dagg again benefits from the dominance of the AB machine.

Carter, Read, Kaino and Owen Franks I definitely agree with though. Mealamu too, but marginally.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alex

I have to disagree with you there. Was talking to a NZ mate of mine comparing each allblack player to each wallaby player. Dagg, Jane, Nonu, Carter, Weepu, Read, Mccaw, Kaino, Mealamu, Franks are all stand out players in my books, and all have the edge over their australian counterparts unfortunately.

And boy does it suck having a NZ mate...really should have waited til after the match before I started all the "choke" talk

---

That's sort of making my point; you can't have 10 stand-out players on a team. They are all good, but no-one is head and shoulders above the rest; there isn't an All Black you can point to and say "That's the star on the team." If they are all good, and they work well as a team, it's difficult to pick any one of them for IRB Player of the Year.

On the other hand, with almost all of the other teams at the RWC you could point to 1 or 2 players who are 'stars'.

Pocock will be robbed with Nonu to win.

Nonu's last stand at the canes should disqualify him... He's another petulant shit apparently
Posted via Mobile Device

Spent some some time with Wellingtonians recently and Nanu has signed for a single season at Blues for next year, Hammet only has one to go as Coach at Canes, just watch all the players return to the Canes in 2013.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by James

You can't make those comparisons. Pocock is better than McCaw. No question about it. If McCaw had Samo and Elsom next to him he would look decidedly average.

Weepu isn't generally better than Genia. Have you seen him provincially in the last couple of years? Genia just has the struggle of working behind a pack that is being dominated by the ABs. Dagg and Beale are equal IMHO- Dagg again benefits from the dominance of the AB machine.

Carter, Read, Kaino and Owen Franks I definitely agree with though. Mealamu too, but marginally.

---

agreed .. the surrounding players have a big influence on individual performances and voting directions

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Happy

agreed .. the surrounding players have a big influence on individual performances and voting directions

---

In the same way Dane Swan won this years Brownlow Medal :rolleyes:

igzackery