Northern Hemisphere Finally Wins Something Shocker!

toomevara

...but don't get too excited. Shane Williams named as IRB player of the year (decision, a little, ahem, eccentric IMO)...AB's And Graham Henry named team and manager of the year respectively..

barryjohn

what do you expect... if you have any knowledge of rugby at all you'll realise that shane williams didnt even deserve to win it and it was given to a northern hemisphere player just to spread it out a little bit. tell me whos deserved it???richie mc caw was the worlds best player this year and i'd say most players would concede that without a problem.

Hugh_C

barryjohn wrote: »

richie mc caw was the worlds best player this year

That's more a function of his getting away with it and anomalies in refereeing.

toomevara

barryjohn wrote: »

tell me whos deserved it???richie mc caw was the worlds best player this year and i'd say most players would concede that without a problem.

Riche McCaw, Schalke Burger, Sergio Parisse to name but a few...don't get me wrong I love Shane Williams, And watching him play always takes me back to an earlier era where skill and individual genius counted for as much as size, aggression and time spent pumping iron in the gym...don't know what the criteria for the award are but its definitely a strange choice imo....

barryjohn

Neil Back,Josh Kronfeld, Richie Mc Caw, Martin Williams,Schalk Berger and George Smith to name but a few.... they all seem to share one big thing in common- they all tread on the line of the law. This quality is part and parcel of being a good openside wing forward in todays game. Your point about refereeing is meaningless because every single openside gives away penalties for doing the exact same thing. Some are better at it than others and you still have to play against it. Also alot of what Mc Caw does is in fact legal too. Hes unbelievably smart and fast to get to his feet at the break down.
You look back through the years and tell me what players from europe should have won world player of the year??? The two best teams in the world at present, South Africa and New Zealand, are from the southern hemisphere and arguably so is the third best team, Australia. For all the talk of this player or that player would get in a world 15 about european players, how many actually would right now? Maybe between 2 and 4 and even I feel even that is being generous.

Eoin

Check out his record though - you can't deny that's impressive:

The 31-year-old Ospreys player broke Gareth Thomas’ try-scoring record in the title-clinching victory over France and has scored 43 tries in 60 Tests for his country – 14 of them in his last 13 Tests – after making his debut against Italy in 2000.

O'Driscoll got try of the year against Australia - anyone have a link to it on youtube?

toomevara

eoin_s wrote: »

Check out his record though - you can't deny that's impressive:

That is impressive, no doubt...knew he was good, just didn't realise he was, well, that good...

barryjohn

I think Shane Williams is a fantastic player but again, comparing him with even other world wingers alone he still isn't even a top 5 player not a mind when you put in the other 13 players and all the worlds talent from those positions.
Can you honestly say hes a better rugby player than Rokocoko, Sivivatu, Habana to name but 3 player I believe are better players.
I believe Shane Williams won the award out of charity to the northern hemisphere.

toomevara

eoin_s wrote: »

O'Driscoll got try of the year against Australia - anyone have a link to it on youtube?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMSn2hwC7Mg

That working? Link should be fine.....http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PMSn2hwC7Mg

Eoin

Thanks for that (you just put the last part - PMSn2hwC7Mg - after the equals sign in the youtube tags).

[Jackass]

toomevara wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMSn2hwC7Mg

That working? Link should be fine.....http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PMSn2hwC7Mg

Great finish by O'Driscoll and great team move from Reddan, to Leamy, to Kearney, to Bowe and to BO'D.

Another acolade in a long, long list of honours for the Irish captain. Nice to see he still gets recognition outside of this country. Sometimes all the noise can distract you from his brilliance.

twinytwo

barryjohn wrote: »

I think Shane Williams is a fantastic player but again, comparing him with even other world wingers alone he still isn't even a top 5 player not a mind when you put in the other 13 players and all the worlds talent from those positions.
Can you honestly say hes a better rugby player than Rokocoko, Sivivatu, Habana to name but 3 player I believe are better players.
I believe Shane Williams won the award out of charity to the northern hemisphere.

In all fairness he is as good if not better.. Habana is **** anyway.. take away his speed and what does he have???... nothing. At least williams has skills... charity to the northern hemisphere.. what dream world are you living in?

Stev_o

How Pariseo didnt win is beyond me he's the best player in the world at the moment demonstrated by the fact that he is basically the whole Italian team

Eoin

twinytwo wrote: »

In all fairness he is as good if not better.. Habana is **** anyway.. take away his speed and what does he have???... nothing. At least williams has skills... charity to the northern hemisphere.. what dream world are you living in?

And take away John Hayes' strength and he has nothing. But the point is that he has it.

zillmere

Williams is great with ball in hand & will be a handfull in the 6N.

In defense he is a total speedbump.

Eoin

zillmere wrote: »

Williams is great with ball in hand & will be a handfull in the 6N.

In defense he is a total speedbump.

Yeah, I remember Aurélien Rougerie tramping over him a few years ago. I would say he has worked on his defense since then though.

Some good clips here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7fTYdDV-dQ