Brumbies and Wallabies openside flanker George Smith has won his eighth Brett Robinson Players Player Award.
The 28-year-old finished the Super 14 rugby season with 204 votes, ahead of fullback Mark Gerrard (183), prop Ben Alexander (176) and flyhalf Christian Lealiifano (119) to claim the award for the seventh consecutive year.
Smith has played 119 of the Brumbies last 120 matches, including the last 53 consecutively.
“Every coach would love to have a George Smith in their side,” Brumbies boss Andy Friend told the awards dinner on Saturday night.
“He’s a player that continually exceeds the expectations placed upon him at any level whether it be playing club rugby, with the Brumbies or at Test level for the Wallabies.”
The evening also featured a tribute to Brumbies lock Shawn Mackay, who died in April after being struck by a car during the side’s South African leg in March.
In the evenings other awards prop Ben Alexander was named Best Forward while Mark Gerrard was recognised as Best Back for a second successive season.
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Greg Russell said | July 7th 2009 @ 2:02pm | Report comment
“The 28-year-old finished the Super 14 rugby season with 204 votes, ahead of fullback Mark Gerrard (183) … Mark Gerrard was recognised as Best Back for a second successive season.”
If the Brumbies have the best (or second-best, behind the Force) backs in Australia, and if Gerrard has been the best Brumbies back for the last two seasons, then why has he been blackballed by the Wallabies and driven off to play in Japan? I feel Deans owes Australian rugby fans an explanation over this. I’m fully aware that Gerrard has weaknesses – he lacks pace for an outside back, and his man-on-man defence can be lazy – but it’s not as if Australian rugby has many (any?) players without fault. The backs are the direct responsibility of Deans, so there’s no doubt that the casting aside of Gerrard is fully his decision. I’m not saying that I will not respect his reasons, but without knowing them I cannot respect them.
Chris Beck said | July 10th 2009 @ 10:23am | Report comment
Gerrard for me is the kind of guy that I like in my teams even though it’s sometimes hard to explain why. There’s just something there that I intuitively see in players such as this – players who read the game well, are skilled in many aspects of the game, and are not flashy.