The 2022 alternative rugby awards

While World Ruby has already given away the official awards for 2022, I think we can do a little better.

These are the alternative rugby awards for 2022.

Tackle of the year

Sam Cane (New Zealand) on Marcos Kremer (Argentina)

When assessing the quality of a tackle, a big part of the equation is the ball carrier, and in Marcos Kremer they don’t come much tougher. One of Cane’s biggest pluses is making his tackles out in front of the line – I know I write this a lot, but this is a great example; there are a whole lot of blue-and-white forwards who have to work hard to get back behind the ball – while dropping his target on the spot, and this tackle was made as he reset from the previous ruck.

This was a great hit, but one suspects Cane was somewhat lucky the ball did find its way to his intended target, because for all money it looks like he was going to belt him anyway.

Straight to the coaching video bin this one.

From 1.00 on the following clip

I look forward to any suggested alternatives.

The excitement machines

We all know that the game is won up front and the cliche holds that those in the wider channels decide by how much, but we cannot deny that the crowds love the fast men, the try scorers, those who have the ability to make their opposites look just a little bit average. This year delivered a swathe of them.

Kurt-Lee Arendse is so much more than a quality finisher, and he has given the coaching team something to think about when Cheslin Kolbe is back to top fitness. Mark Telea’s performance for the All Blacks has opened up all sorts of options for the coaching team which could see either Will Jordan or Shaun Stevenson given a run at fullback early in the World Cup run-up. Mark Nawaqanitawase has transformed in a Test jersey, with a last name as long as the jet stream he leaves behind, and it never hurts to have the commentators swotting over phonetic pronunciation guides to earn their coin. Wales have uncovered yet another wide whirlwind in Rio Dyer, who in combination with Louis Rees-Zammit is going to provide defences with all sorts of problems.

But the best of the bunch is Italian fullback Ange Capuozzo. If you can make the impact he has this year in a lower level team, then you have all sorts of good going on.

This effort setting up the winner against Wales from the Six Nations was brilliant.

And nothing like scoring a brace when your side knocks over a Tier 1 nation. The first try from 1:16 on the clip, the second try is from 3:00 – this guy knows how to run a line and explode through a gap.

Try of the year

Kurt-Lee Arendse against England

Where do you start? No doubt there will be lot of other options from the men’s and women’s game that would be worthy, but Kurt-Lee Arendse’s effort against England was saving the best for late in the season and gets my vote because of the totality of his involvements.

It starts with him running a 20-metre protection line back to allow Damian Willemse an easier catch, and he then turns and gets back in support of a breaking Willie le Roux on the counterattack before that wonderful final step. It was subtle, effective and done at full pace, and it all combined to leave Marcus Smith unable to lay a hand on him.

It further rubbed salt into the wound that it was Smith’s bomb that South Africa ran back. All class.

The eternal classics

We all like the newbies bursting onto the scene, but sides are built around their key players and the ability to deliver week after week against the very best. That is the mark of real champions.

In no particular order I am going to go with Eben Etzebeth, Johnny Sexton and Aaron Smith. They’re big cogs in big wheels and leave demonstrated big gaps when they are not in the side. If these guys pick up an injury before World Cup, their respective team’s odds go into free fall.

Individual performance of the year

Aaron Smith, All Blacks halfback

It’s time to test the memory banks as we go back to the opening Test of the fated July series when the All Blacks opened by putting 42 points and six tries on the now world No. 1 side. There is playing off nine and there is playing off nine like this, which was just at a different level.

On this day Aaron Smith delivered a passing display as good as I have ever seen.

It was not only the three try assists he racked up with speed, width and pass selection, but it was all about tempo, always lightning off the floor, never arriving at a ruck without knowing his next move and making a well-drilled Irish defensive line look pretty ordinary as they struggled to reset going backwards. Throw in a first-class ruck snipe from 35 metres out that led to Ardie Savea’s first try and you have a highlights reel unlikely to be bettered.

It’s hard to pick a favourite score on the day, but the one that people will remember most I think ends with an Ardie Savea score, having won the initial lineout, with three Smith passes in the lead-up – three left-handers, all perfectly executed, chest high, out in front, inviting his runners forward – and noting of course he generates this width from a lineout taken at the front.

There are lots of magic moments in the following video, but check out in particular:

1. from 55 seconds ending in a Jordie Barrett score (watch Tadhg Beirne in the final play);
2. from 2:16 with an audacious ruck snipe (poor old Tadhg Beirne again); and
3. from 3:47 for the passing lesson leading up to Ardie Savea’s well-remembered try.

It proved to be somewhat of a false dawn for the All Blacks, who had to wait another four matches before the required coaching and game plan changes would find their way into the squad for the win away in Johannesburg.

Match of the season

Ireland versus South Africa in Dublin

It’s always nice to be a neutral fan watching a game when South Africa bring their full noise, as they did for this one. We throw words like ‘physicality’ and ‘brutality’ around an awful lot in our sport, but the opening 40 minutes of this Test met every single descriptor of the genre and was equally memorable for the resistance and fortitude of the Irish side, who are on the lighter side of forward packs among the top teams as well as being for the grunt and directness that only a South African side fully on song can bring.

Josh van der Flier with 15 tackles without a miss demonstrated why he would go on to be a worthy winner of the world player of the year award, while Eben Etzebeth topped the carry count for the match with 13, all direct into the tough stuff.

No interest in having to stop that bloke once, let alone 12 other times, but Ireland refused to buckle.

With Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and France all on the same side of the draw at next year’s World Cup, one suspects that whoever makes it all the way to the final dance is going to have to rely on their wider squad a great deal if this match is an indicator of future intensity.