Bemused South African pundits and fans have questioned the absence of Springboks players in the World Rugby men’s player of the year nominations.
Australia’s Michael Hooper and Samu Kerevi, France’s Antoine Dupont and England/British and Irish Lions player Maro Itoje have been nominated for the men’s 15s player of the year award, which will be decided by a fan vote.
Curiously, no player from the No.1-ranked Springboks or No.2-ranked All Blacks earned a nod.
It marks the first time since 2001 that neither New Zealand or South Africa are represented in the nominations and the first time since 2004 that an All Blacks player has missed out.
Lukhanyo Am is the only South African player nominated in any of the eight main World Rugby award categories – he’s up for try of the year thanks to his effort against the British and Irish Lions.
The snubbing didn’t sit well with Craig Lewis, a journalist for the South African, who described the Springboks’ omissions as “laughable”.
While he agreed that Hooper and Dupont were deserving selections, he argued “it’s impossible for anyone to truly mount a reasonable argument to suggest that Samu Kerevi and Maro Itoje are more deserving nominees than the likes of [Siya] Kolisi, Am and [Eben] Etzebeth.
“Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and World Rugby proved that to be true when they revealed the four-man shortlist,” Lewis wrote in his column.
Sports journalist Andy McGeady tweeted in response to the nominations: “This is just plain weird”.
Former Springboks captain John Smit, who led the team to the 2007 World Cup triumph, was on the panel responsible for deciding the men’s 15s award nominees.
Maggie Alphonsi (England), Fiona Coghlan (Ireland), Thierry Dusautoir (France), George Gregan (Australia), Richie McCaw (New Zealand), Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland), Melodie Robinson (New Zealand) and Clive Woodward (England) were the other judges.
SA Rugby president Mark Alexander commended Am for making the try of the year shortlist.
“On behalf of SA Rugby and South Africa’s passionate rugby fans, we would like to congratulate Lukhanyo for being nominated for the International Rugby Players Men’s Try of the Year award,” said Mr Alexander.
“Only four players are nominated for this prestigious award and being part of that selected group is in itself a huge achievement.
“It was certainly a great try, and it underlined the quality of the players and skill we have in this special Springbok team.”
Still, the lack of individual recognition may fire up South Africa when they face England this weekend for the first time since the 2019 World Cup final.
The World Rugby Awards 2021 will be held in a digital-first format from 6-10 December, with winners unveiled on World Rugby’s social media channels.
Blessing
Roar Rookie
She does my head in. I’ve mentioned this before. I know that some Roarers don’t mind her because they find her attractive. Don’t really see it but that’s not the point. Pitch side microphones always pick up her horrible screeching. She sounds like a cat with laryngitis.
ShaghaiDoc
Guest
Not one player from the two best teams in the world? Sure and our Dear Leader, who roots for the league's most corrupt team, has never made a porky!
James in NZ
Roar Rookie
Wayne Barnes sent off the Wasp's waterboy V the Exeter Chiefs for getting in a scuffle. Billy Twelvetrees of the Sale Sharks and the Gloucester waterboy started a huge brawl recently. The Walls scrum coach/waterboy had to be shoved out of the way by the Scots Fin Russell. The Bath kit manager was told to stand down for a game after telling a ref to F-off. Then you have coach Nienaber apologizing for telling their waterboy to pressure the assit Ref in our RC defeat. These uppity Liam Messam esk waterboys are off the cuff and are a scourge on our game I tells ya.
WEST
Roar Guru
My grandfather’s side lost two brothers there. I personally have nothing against the English. Gallipoli was only a minor campaign on the larger scale of things. NZ has always backed the empire in everything. 100,000 served in WW1. The population of NZ was on 1 million at the time. 18,166 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded during the war – a 58 percent casualty rate. Approximately a further thousand men died within five years of the war's end, as a result of injuries sustained, and 507 died while training in New Zealand between 1914 and 1918. that’s war, no one really wins. But for the small communities, it was very difficult to recover from. As a NZ we hear different stories that you might not be aware of, I’m not going to go into it. It’s ancient history now.. But, you’ll have to accept that some NZers aren’t fond of the English. Nothing personal. It is what it is. The maori side of the story has to be taken into consideration as well, with the dodge dealings of the NZ company under Arthur Wakefield.. That’s a whole different kettle of fish :silly: this is about rugby for pets sake! How did we end up here :laughing:
Pom in exile
Roar Rookie
We certainly can and I fully understand the trauma felt by ANZACs and their descendants and I don’t wish to diminish that, the loss of life was horrific for everyone but particularly ‘young’ countries like Australia and NZ. However there is far more to Gallipoli than: English/evil ANZACs/heroes.
TC
Guest
The Boks have played, mostly, good rugby since 2019, and they should probably have a nod for one of their players. But I'm surprised they don't rate Kerevi's nomination. He waltzed through them like they were schoolboys.
WEST
Roar Guru
Each have their opinion, we can agree to disagree.
Pom in exile
Roar Rookie
What exactly does that mean? ‘A true Englishman’? Does it mean that I care about facts rather than fiction? Does it mean that I understand nuance? Does it mean that I understand that nobody ‘wins’ in the theatre of war? Just curious that’s all. Couple of points. The ANZAC commanders were ordered to advance after landing but disobeyed that order and dug into a wholey in appropriate spot, which is where they stayed for the next 8 months. Why did they disobey direct orders? It’s absolutely terrible that 8000 NZ lives were lost there but there was a great many more British lives lost there. The whole of WW1 was a cluster…. Due in no small part to outdated tactics allied to modern weaponry. It seems that you’re quite right that attitudes changed towards the Brits or more specifically the English after Gallipoli, even more reason is it not to be accurate and not just parrot the propaganda concocted after the event.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Yes any success is looked apon as that being the norm instead of looking at each result in Isolation in Aus rugby. When they have a win V NZ they are suddenly world beaters only to wonder why they lost the following game...
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Nah Im thinking more like the Lions have played 12 series in NZ for 1 series win and 1 series draw. The Lions have played 14 series in SA for 4 series wins. So the largely unsucessful Lions win 8.33% of series V NZ and 28.5 series V SA. But if you go on games its V SA 25 wins to SA 18 wins to the Lions and 6 draws. Against NZ is 30 wins to NZ, 7 wins to Lions and 4 draws. NZ massively more successful against the Lions than SA is.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Agree!!!
WEST
Roar Guru
Spoken by a true Englishmen. It wasn’t far off it, persisting in a campaign that was completely useless.. is pretty much the same as slaughter. You can try to justify it all you want. NZ payed a massive price for English incompetence. Have you been to Gallipoli? Walked the beach and climbed the cliffs they expected to get a foothold on. Bloody ludicrous, I’ve been there climbed those hills. Found plenty of .303 casings. Mate, you’re not going to convince me.. I accept it was times of war. But after that the attitude towards England changed dramatically.
Pom in exile
Roar Rookie
I’m not suggesting it wasn’t a disaster but there were many contributing factors. The idea that the English gleefully sent the colonials off to their slaughter is patent nonsense. Much of this is down to Mr Bean (not that one) the ‘historian’ or should I say propagandist, mind you he knew his audience I suppose.
WEST
Roar Guru
No myth. One of Winston Churchill mistakes. Also lack of leadership at that campaign. The whole thing was a disaster, start to finish. If you think Gallipoli was a anything but. I suggest you do more research.
USrugger
Roar Rookie
Jacko... I think a part of the Wally's problem is hubris. They made more of the home victories against SA than they should've. Full marks to them on the second match, but the first was literally gifted to them by Pollard. Somehow, it became a victory to be counted, versus a lucky escape. And, the rest, is history...
USrugger
Roar Rookie
A couple of firm ejections...or 10m penalty walks...& all the ref nonsense will be done. If Rassie doesn't listen...if a player gets out of line...march 'em 10 metres...& soon the nonsense will be over...
piru
Roar Rookie
That physio was again wandering the touchline screaming her head off against the Scots, too
piru
Roar Rookie
I quite like Barnes as well
piru
Roar Rookie
I did say present company excluded, but if you want to number yourself amongst the wailing masses - by all means
piru
Roar Rookie
You need speed…to be A first class ref You need a degree of speed (and in my experience, acceleration is more important than top end), but you don't need to be Usain Bolt. Being able to read the game is more important.