As a player in my younger days, there was always the Players’ Player award. For me, this was always the best award to win, both on a game by game level and as a major award at the season’s end.
It signified that I had worked harder, performed better and received some recognition from my playing peers.
Do international teams have a Players Player Award? Do they recognise players that have performed in the eyes of their peers? Obviously the captain and coach have a chane to speak after the game, but as an internal group what type of recognition is there?
In pondering this question I started to think, who would get my “Man of the Match” award if it was up to me to award it after the Wallabies V French game tonight?
In considering this, I am going to list the players who I think where the standouts for the Wallabies tonight.
– Nathan Sharpe. He carried the ball on a number of occasions, always hitting it hard and making the advantage line. He made a huge number of tackles and was invloved heavily in his core business lineouts and securing ball at the breakdown.
– Ben Robinson. He was great in support play, pinched plenty of ball, which is something i have not seen a lot from him. He was solid in the scrum, his side seemed to be the most reliable and was ALWAYS in the nitty gritty.
– Adam Ashley Cooper. He hit the ball hard in attack, came into the defensive line at the right times and was good in cover. He seemed to communicate well with the other back two and his kicking game was probably the most consistent of all the wallabies tonight.
– Lachie Turner. He was involved in all aspects of attack and defence which is something that you do not always see from a winger. His defence was great and again the communication, in attack and defence seemed to be working very well.
There was of course the players who always perform, namely Smith and Mortlock but we have become very acustomed to this.
I would really like to know what their peers say about the performances tonight. It would also be interesting to take a poll of people watching the game and see who they thought performed above and beyond or had a strong game.
I know not everyone will agree but who do you think were the standouts tonight?
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