Genia wins Super Rugby player award
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Wallabies halfback Will Genia has taken out Australia’s Super Rugby Player of the year for a second straight year and spearheaded a Queensland domination of the awards announced on Thursday.
Genia polled three votes in the final round of the season to finish on 18, one point ahead of teammate Scott Higginbotham, Western Force captain David Pocock and Brumbies five-eighth Christian Lealiifano, who missed a significant portion of the season through injury.
Genia joins flanker George Smith and fullback Chris Latham as a two-time winner of the award.
Queensland also won the Team of the year award and their mentor Ewen McKenzie Coach of the year, both awarded on the basis that the Reds finished the highest placed of the five Australian franchises.
It was a record fifth title for McKenzie, who won three with NSW and now two with the Reds.
The Reds also scooped the try of the year for a team effort against the Rebels scored by winger Dom Shipperley.
The improving Brumbies were recognised with their winger and former rugby league player Joseph Tomane winning the Rookie of the Year.
New Zealand’s Steve Walsh was named Referee of the Year.
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- Rugby Union, Super Rugby, Will Genia
July 26th 2012 @ 2:50pm
Larry said | July 26th 2012 @ 2:50pm | Report comment
Puts into perspective how important CL was for the brumbies this year. What a monumental performance. Hope his recovery is going ok.
July 26th 2012 @ 3:49pm
Kuruki said | July 26th 2012 @ 3:49pm | Report comment
Also highlights the improvements that could be had in Australian rugby with a stronger 2nd tier competition. I think his progress was helped along by his stint with Waikato in the ITM cup.
July 26th 2012 @ 4:48pm
Larry said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:48pm | Report comment
That was the season before last though, I’d be careful to weight the NZ stint too heavily. He has always been a tremendous individual attacking threat, but his ability to create for his outside men and marshall his backline improved significantly this year. You would have to lay some of the credit for this at the feet of Larkham, but also credit CL’s natural evolution as a footballer.
Here’s hoping that White recognises the true talent here, and Tomoua is relegated to a bench/injury cover role next season, before being offloaded somewhere else…
July 26th 2012 @ 3:18pm
Red Kev said | July 26th 2012 @ 3:18pm | Report comment
Yeah CL was a massive loss for them, I was really excited to see what he was going to produce for the Wallabies too … oh well, next year hopefully.
I also believe Jake White should have gotten the Coach of the Year award based on the turnaround he managed at the Brumbies.
July 26th 2012 @ 6:01pm
nickoldschool said | July 26th 2012 @ 6:01pm | Report comment
Agree RK, Jake White should have won this one. He managed to create a good team playing a very decent brand of rugby with a bunch of nobodies. E.M had the champions with him and just qualified to the finals. Not saying he did a bad job but White has imo much more merit for what he achieved this year.
July 26th 2012 @ 3:24pm
Jutsie said | July 26th 2012 @ 3:24pm | Report comment
I never thought CL was a great player prior to this year but this season he was given support and advice from a good coaching team and did not have take a backseat to a show pony no. 12 masquerading as a 10.
He grasped the opportunity with both hands and it was such a shame to see him go down as he would’ve been a shoe in for the wallabies.
I also think the brumbies were the best team in aus by a fair mile prior to him going down.
July 26th 2012 @ 3:33pm
DingoBob said | July 26th 2012 @ 3:33pm | Report comment
I agree with Red Kev in that Jake White should be Coach of the year. I also believe team of the year shouldn’t just be about who finished higher up the ladder but should also be about which team has shown the most improvement.
July 26th 2012 @ 3:35pm
Justin2 said | July 26th 2012 @ 3:35pm | Report comment
I agree with you on the point of how the awards are done. This way there is no debate. Results are all that matters but White has to be the coach of the year, no question actually.
July 26th 2012 @ 4:26pm
Brett McKay said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:26pm | Report comment
Have to agree with this, it’s entirely possible that the best team of the year finishes 2nd by virtue of a last round loss (and I don’t necessarily mean the Brumbies this year, just in general). Having the Reds finish winning 7 or 8 on the trot is still impressive, and due credit to McKenzie for achieving this, but surely these awards are more open-minded than just wins?
July 26th 2012 @ 4:32pm
formeropenside said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:32pm | Report comment
Like in 2010 when the Tahs coach got it over McKenzie? Its about the wins. And it would have been a bit funny when McKenzie out-coached White twice in a row.
July 26th 2012 @ 4:39pm
Justin2 said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:39pm | Report comment
FOS – fair call on White being beat by Link twice. Understand that. I guess from where the Brumbies were he did a superior job arguably than Link.
July 26th 2012 @ 4:43pm
Jutsie said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:43pm | Report comment
I’d hardly call it outcoached when both games were close calls, although white made one big error in the first game of playing vaea ahead of hooper against gill and robinson, the game was almost turned on its head when hooper came on in the 2nd half and gave the brumbs parity at the breakdown.
2nd game, neither coach had an impact and no player did either (apart from holmes missing a sitter) it was all about walshy that game.
As good as white has been as a motivator and off-field leader there are some question marks about kick heavy tactics once CL went down and with his persistence in playing a south african style backrow of vaea, kimlin, mowen during the early part of the year.
Then again there are huge question marks surrounding links tactics this year too and he was pretty poor in motivating his troops when it counted.
July 26th 2012 @ 8:26pm
Rob from Brumby Country said | July 26th 2012 @ 8:26pm | Report comment
I agree with Jutsie. The second match didn’t really have a convincing victor (apart from Walsh, I mean), and Hooper’s benching in the first game was the major mistake that really kept the sides apart in that match. It was a stupid mistake on White’s part, granted, but no sillier than playing your star scrumhalf at no. 10 against a side packed with Springboks.
Add to that the fact that the Brumbies only bad loss came against the Blues, and you could say that White’s coaching was certainly more consistent than Ewen’s. Both teams suffered from injuries, so I hope that isn’t going to be used as an excuse for the Perth and Pretoria debacles.
July 26th 2012 @ 8:31pm
soapit said | July 26th 2012 @ 8:31pm | Report comment
a coach who takes a team of nobodies, and finishes within a couple of points of the defending champs at the endof the season is an obvious choice for coach of the year. if its all about the wins then why have separate team and coach awards?
July 26th 2012 @ 3:48pm
Jerry said | July 26th 2012 @ 3:48pm | Report comment
He’s not “New Zealand’s Steve Walsh” . He’s not representing NZ, is he? If Mike Harris were named player of the year would he be “New Zealand’s Mike Harris” or would he be “Queensland’s Mike Harris”.
July 26th 2012 @ 4:42pm
biltongbek said | July 26th 2012 @ 4:42pm | Report comment
Well done Genia, last night when I was watching Re-Union the new zealanders were quite impressed with Keegan Daniels and Marcell coetzze as well.
July 27th 2012 @ 1:22am
FrankJ said | July 27th 2012 @ 1:22am | Report comment
Where did you watch this biltong?
July 27th 2012 @ 1:31am
biltongbek said | July 27th 2012 @ 1:31am | Report comment
We get the monday night show of Re-Union televised on Supersport on Wednesday evenings every week mate.
July 26th 2012 @ 5:13pm
tonysalerno said | July 26th 2012 @ 5:13pm | Report comment
By far and away Australia’s best player…okay maybe not according to David Pocock fans. The Wallabies scrum half was instrumental in the June Internationals and super rugby season for the reds. He will be a pivotal player when the Bledisloe cup is played.
July 26th 2012 @ 5:21pm
Kuruki said | July 26th 2012 @ 5:21pm | Report comment
Agree. Pocock is a great player but Genia has more influence over results.
July 26th 2012 @ 8:28pm
Rob from Brumby Country said | July 26th 2012 @ 8:28pm | Report comment
Well, I’m a Pocock fan, but I can agree that Will Genia’s is Australia’s best. I didn’t use to buy into the hype of the “better than Gregan, better than Farr-Jones” claims, but I’, starting to come around on that.
July 26th 2012 @ 5:29pm
The Werewolf said | July 26th 2012 @ 5:29pm | Report comment
Genia and Pocock are the only two australians that would make a world xv at the moment.
July 26th 2012 @ 10:32pm
Jutsy said | July 26th 2012 @ 10:32pm | Report comment
Digby would be up there too
July 26th 2012 @ 5:41pm
Sage said | July 26th 2012 @ 5:41pm | Report comment
Well done Sanchez, an all round good performance over the whole year. Player of the year has to be the combo of overall approach and attitude as well as skill and performance and the only negative I see is a certain cockiness creeping in more and more to his overall demeanour that that he could do without.
July 26th 2012 @ 5:42pm
Geoff Brisbane now California said | July 26th 2012 @ 5:42pm | Report comment
Congrats to WG and in fact all who won awards. Never easy picking winners but some good competition adds spice.