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Aaron Smith nominated for three accolades as New Zealand Rugby Awards nominees announced
All Blacks veteran Aaron Smith and Black Ferns star Stacey Fluhler loom as the big contenders for this week’s New Zealand Rugby [NZR] Awards after being nominated for three awards apiece.
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This year’s awards will be presented in a made-for-TV special this Thursday, with awards presented to leading teams, players, coaches, administrators and referees.
NZR chief executive Mark Robinson congratulated the nominees for their efforts in 2020.
“We have seen an incredible standard of excellence at all levels of our game this year. There has been a tremendous level of perseverance and achievement in what has been very challenging times,” he said.
“This year, more than ever, it is important to acknowledge the incredible tenacity and dedication of our rugby community. Rugby’s values really shone through this year and we look forward to celebrating the successes.”
Fresh from leading the All Blacks to the Tri Nations victory in Australia, captain and loose forward Sam Cane is among the nominees for All Blacks Player of the Year, alongside hooker Dane Coles and halfback Aaron Smith.
Smith is also in the running for the Tom French Memorial Maori Rugby Player of the Year, as is Maori All Blacks Captain and hooker Ash Dixon and World Sevens Series winner midfielder Stacey Fluhler.
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A breakthrough season for Fluhler also sees her a nominee for Black Ferns Sevens Player of the Year, along with playmaker Kelly Brazier and halfback Tyla Nathan-Wong. Fluhler is also in the running for the Fiao’o Faamausili Medal, nominated alongside Waikato teammate centre Chelsea Alley and Canterbury halfback Kendra Cocksedge, who are also both nominated for Black Ferns Player of the Year, along with Waikato loose forward Kennedy Simon.
After claiming the World Series Sevens title for the first time since 2014, co-captains Scott Curry and Tim Mikkelson are nominated for the Richard Crawshaw Memorial All Blacks Sevens Player of the Year award alongside Ngarohi McGarvey-Black.
Highlanders halfback Smith also gets the nod for Super Rugby Aotearoa Player of the Year, as does Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu, Crusaders playmaker Richie Mo’unga and Hurricanes fullback Jordie Barrett.
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— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 13, 2020
The stand-out performers from Mitre 10 Cup, as voted each week by Sky commentators, will be in the running for the Duane Monkley Medal.
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The finalists for that award are lively Hawke’s Bay halfback Folau Fakatava, Auckland outside back Salesi Rayasi and Bay of Plenty fullback Kaleb Trask.
Championship-winning teams the Crusaders, Tasman, Hawke’s Bay and the Canterbury Farah Palmer Cup side will have the chance to pick up another piece of silverware as all are nominated for adidas National Team of the Year.
All teams in black that took the field in 2020 will be in the running for adidas New Zealand Team of the Year, and their respective coaches nominated for ASB New Zealand Coach of the Year.
The National Coach of the Year nominees include the Crusaders’ Scott Robertson, Tasman’s Andrew Goodman and Clarke Dermody, Waikato FPC coach James Semple and Hawke’s Bay’s Mark Ozich.
Ben O’Keeffe, Paul Williams and Mike Fraser are nominated for New Zealand Rugby Referee of the Year.
The community award for Volunteer of the Year sees nominations for Allen Grainger (Waikato), Scott Kahle (Bay of Plenty) and Jane Chamberlain (Horowhenua Kapiti).
With public voting now closed, the hotly contested Sky Television Fans Try of the Year has been narrowed from a long list of 10 to three. Fans have put Hawke’s Bay’s Neria Fomai, Christ’s College’s Jack Jones and Napier Boys’ High School’s Bethel Lutele-Malasia in the top three.
Three awards will be announced on the night – the NZRPA Kirk Award, the Steinlager Salver and the Kelvin R Tremain Memorial Player of the Year.
The full list of nominees are:
Fans Try of the Year:
Neria Fomai (Hawke’s Bay)
Jack Jones (Christ’s College)
Bethel Lutele-Malasia (Napier Boys’ High School)
New Zealand Referee of the Year:
Mike Fraser (Wellington)
Ben O’Keeffe (Horowhenua Kapiti)
Paul Williams (Taranaki)
Charles Monro Rugby Volunteer of the Year:
Jane Chamberlain (Horowhenua Kapiti)
Allen Grainger (Waikato)
Scott Kahle (Bay of Plenty)
NZRPA Kirk Award:
Announced on the night
Steinlager Salver:
Announced on the night
Duane Monkley Medal (Mitre 10 Cup Player of the Year):
Folau Fakatava (Hawke’s Bay)
Salesi Rayasi (Auckland)
Kaleb Trask (Bay of Plenty)
Fiao’o Faamausili Medal (Farah Palmer Cup Player of the Year):
Chelsea Alley (Waikato)
Kendra Cocksedge (Canterbury)
Stacey Fluhler (Waikato)
National Coach of the Year:
Andrew Goodman and Clarke Dermody (Tasman)
Mark Ozich (Hawke’s Bay)
Scott Robertson (Crusaders)
James Semple (Waikato FPC)
New Zealand Coach of the Year:
Allan Bunting and Cory Sweeney (Black Ferns Sevens)
Ian Foster (All Blacks)
Clark Laidlaw (All Blacks Sevens)
Glenn Moore (Black Ferns)
Clayton McMillian (Maori All Blacks)
Super Rugby Player of the Year:
Jordie Barrett (Taranaki, Hurricanes)
Richie Mo’unga (Canterbury, Crusader)
Aaron Smith (Manawatu, Highlanders)
Patrick Tuipulotu (Auckland, Blues)
Tom French Memorial Maori Player of the Year:
Ash Dixon (Ngati Tahinga, Hawke’s Bay)
Stacey Fluhler (Tuhoe/Te Arawa, Waikato)
Aaron Smith (Ngati Kahungunu, Manawatu)
Richard Crawshaw Memorial All Blacks Sevens Player of the Year:
Scott Curry (Bay of Plenty)
Tim Mikkelson (Waikato)
Ngarohi McGarvey-Black (North Harbour)
Black Ferns Sevens Player of the Year:
Kelly Brazier (Bay of Plenty)
Stacey Fluhler (Waikato)
Tyla Nathan-Wong (Northland)
Black Ferns Player of the Year:
Chelsea Alley (Waikato)
Kendra Cocksedge (Canterbury)
Kennedy Simon (Waikato)
All Blacks Player of the Year:
Sam Cane (Bay of Plenty)
Dane Coles (Wellington)
Aaron Smith (Manawatu)
National Team of the Year:
Crusaders
Hawke’s Bay
Canterbury (FPC)
Tasman
New Zealand Team of the Year:
All Blacks
All Blacks Sevens
Black Ferns
Black Ferns Sevens
Maori All Blacks
Kelvin R Tremain Memorial Player of the Year:
Announced on the night
– New Zealand Rugby
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments