World Rugby Player of the Year Nominees

[TRF_Olyy]

 

[Which Tyler]

#Justice4Maro

 

[NickBD]

Not even sure AWJ was the best Wales player this year.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

5 forwards vs 1 back? Seems an unusual split.

- The US hooker has a happy habit of converting mauls against Tier2 sides (almost a record breaking number of tries, but still).

-AWJ is more of an intangibles kind of guy, but I can respect his nomination.

- PSDT is probably second choice lock at best for the Boks and not as good as Vermuelen in the back row.

- Mapimpi scores more tries than Kolbe in the same side.

I'm really struggling to put forward a counter suggestion though. Probably Penaud (Dupont not far behind) would be my suggestion of someone unlucky to miss out.

 

[Leinster Fan]

5 forwards vs 1 back? Seems an unusual split.

- The US hooker has a happy habit of converting mauls against Tier2 sides (almost a record breaking number of tries, but still).

-AWJ is more of an intangibles kind of guy, but I can respect his nomination.

- PSDT is probably second choice lock at best for the Boks and not as good as Vermuelen in the back row.

- Mapimpi scores more tries than Kolbe in the same side.

I'm really struggling to put forward a counter suggestion though. Probably Penaud (Dupont not far behind) would be my suggestion of someone unlucky to miss out.

Really don't agree about PSDT, the man is a machine and absolutely deserves this. Brilliant player. Mapimpi might have more tries but I doubt anyone not immediately related to him thinks he's a better player (or even finisher) than Kolbe.

Dunno how I feel about the Tier 2 nomination, it does have a feel of tokenism but is probably a good decision. Like a lot of people I don't rate AWJ nearly as highly as his deification in the media would suggest I should but it's probably fair enough based on this year, Wales deserve some level of recognition for their success.

Pretty par for the course for this award really, it's always a list of who has the most hype rather than the actual best performing players (not that they're mutually exclusive). With that in mind actually quite happy to see PSDT and Curry nominated because (at least until a few weeks ago) I didn't think either were getting the praise they deserved for their performances (don't get me wrong, they both got plenty of love but I thought they were both underappreciated).

 

[RedruthRFC]

5 forwards vs 1 back? Seems an unusual split.

Maybe the panel were all South Aftican!

It's a bit of a change from the past two years, when there was only one forward in a sea of backs. Looking back at previous years, this is the first time in ten years that there isn't a Kiwi back in the nominees. Not sure if anything can be read in to either of these facts.

Joe Taufeteʻe's selection is massive tokenism. IIRC, the selections are based upon international performances, but it seems incredible that a player who only merited one start in the premiership last season for his lower tier club could possibly be one of the six best players in the world. If he was carrying the Eagles on his shoulders Sergio Parisse style, then fair enough, but he's not. He's mildly noteworthy because of his try count.

I'm not an AWJ basher, on the contrary, I've defended him here before, but his inclusion smacks of using the "of the season" award as a lifetime achievement award. His tackle counts are still silly, but he doesn't seem as influential as he used to be for me.

 

[Kapa O Pango]

PSDT, Savea and Curry.

All of my man crushes are here.

 

[TRF_heineken]

5 forwards vs 1 back? Seems an unusual split.

- The US hooker has a happy habit of converting mauls against Tier2 sides (almost a record breaking number of tries, but still).

-AWJ is more of an intangibles kind of guy, but I can respect his nomination.

- PSDT is probably second choice lock at best for the Boks and not as good as Vermuelen in the back row.

- Mapimpi scores more tries than Kolbe in the same side.

I'm really struggling to put forward a counter suggestion though. Probably Penaud (Dupont not far behind) would be my suggestion of someone unlucky to miss out.

You certainly don't watch rugby like the rest of us. I mean seriously, have you watched rugby at all the last 2 years???

PSDT hasn't played lock for the boks since 2017. He's been the best tackler in the bok team since then. He's an engine that doesn't run out of fuel, plus he's pretty handy with the ball in hand too. And he's been better than Vermeulen for the bokke on a consistant basis.

For me it's between the World XV backrow: Curry, PSDT & Savea.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Winner of 2021:

 

[Which Tyler]

Winner of 2021



Both the right decision - and comfortably so TBH

 

[Which Tyler]

For 7s




I wouldn't know enough to comment on whether these are the right calls