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'An absolute warrior and a beast': The All Blacks star tipped for World Rugby Player of the Year award

By Alex McLeod
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

It hasn’t been a vintage All Blacks season by any means, but that’s not to say none of their players will be in the running for the World Rugby Player of the Year award.

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In fact, peers of All Blacks captain Sam Cane believe he is the leading candidate from Ian Foster’s squad to receive a nomination for the award.

Speaking on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod, two-test All Blacks hooker James Parsons and Maori All Blacks halfback Bryn Hall both praised Cane’s efforts in 2020, saying they were of a standard that could see him crowned best player on the planet.

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Parsons suggested midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown may also be considered due to the consistency of his improved performances, but maintained that Cane was the standout All Black of the year.

“I think a consistent [player] would be Anton Lienert-Brown. He’s been consistently performing well in test matches,” Parsons told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“But, to me, there’s only one guy, and that’s the skip. I just think Sam Cane’s been an absolute warrior and a beast, and I think captaincy has really brought the best out of him and he’s just led from the front defensively and attacking-wise.

“In a new role, I think you can sometimes see your performances waver. I think his performances have skyrocketed with those roles.

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“A little bit of a quiet achiever, and that’s what you probably want in the No. 7 role. He just gets the business done, rolls his sleeves up, so I think if there was to be a nomination, one of those two boys would have to be up there.”

Hall, speaking via Zoom from the Maori All Blacks camp as they prepare to take on Moana Pasifika in Hamilton this weekend, added that Cane had handled the challenges of being an All Blacks captain well in his first year in the full-time role.

“I’d probably just go Sam Cane, if I’m being honest,” Hall said, before pointing to Cane’s leadership in the midst of the media storm that erupted after his comments about fans not knowing as much as they think they do about rugby.

“I think some other players have had good spurts, but I think if we’re talking around consistency, around test matches that we’ve played this year, I think Sammy lives up to that.

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“I think to be a World Player of the Year, you’ve got to consistently play well and reach the levels of that every single time you play in a test match.

“I think the biggest thing, as well, he’s shown a great form of leadership. He’s had a lot of heat in the media, and on the weekend showed his leadership in, not only him, but the coaching staff and the leaders around him.

“But, World Player of the Year, I’d probably go Sammy. He’d probably be the only one that I’d pick from the All Blacks who’s shown a lot of consistency and played really well this year.”

Whether Cane succeeds South African loose forward Pieter-Steph du Toit as the world’s best player will be revealed next Monday when the 2020 World Rugby Awards take place in a virtual format due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The awards will celebrate not only the disruptive year of rugby that has gone by, but also the feats and achievements of players and teams from the past decade.

Eight new categories have been added to the awards ceremony to recognise rugby’s best from between 2010 and 2019 to complement the award-winners from 2020.

Of those new categories, six – Men’s and Women’s 15s Players of the Decade, Men’s and Women’s Sevens Players of the Decade, and IRP Men’s and Women’s 15s Tries of the Decade – will be decided by fan vote that opened and closed in October.

The other two new categories – Men’s and Women’s 15s Team of the Decade – will be determined by a panel comprised of various prominent rugby figures from across the globe.

Listen to the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod below:

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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