Barrett’s winners at end of season awards

Club Rugby | 16 December 2016 | NZRU & Club Rugby

The World Champions, Investec Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup holders have been crowned the adidas Team of the Year for the sixth year in a row, at the NZRU end of season awards in Auckland on Wednesday night.

And the Barrett brothers have scooped up four awards between them with Beauden Barrett winning Player of the Year and Super Rugby Player of the Year and younger brother Jordie Barrett picking up Age Grade Player of the Year and Men’s NPC Player of the Year.

World Rugby Player of the Year Beauden Barrett is this year’s winner of the Kelvin R Tremain Player of the Year award following an outstanding year in which he was the leading points scorer in both Investec Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship. Barrett secured his place as the All Blacks starting first-five-eighth, scoring 152 points in the black jersey in 2016.

All Blacks Head Coach Steve Hansen was named the Coach of the Year for the fifth successive year.

Challenged to re-establish the All Blacks after last year’s World Cup win and the departure of over 800 caps worth of experience, in 2016 the All Blacks regrouped to set a Tier-One record of 18 consecutive test victories, won the Investec Rugby Championship in a clean sweep and secured the Bledisloe Cup for the 14th year in a row. The team also enjoyed a Steinlager Series victory over Wales and a successful Vista Northern tour, with just the one loss to Ireland, to conclude the year with a 13:1 win-loss record.

The All Blacks’ success was also recognised by their international peers last month when they were named World Rugby Team of the Year and Steve Hansen was named World Rugby Coach of the Year.

Veteran television producer Gavin Service is the recipient of the 2016 Steinlager Salver which recognises an outstanding contribution to the game.

Service was a pioneer of live television rugby coverage in New Zealand. His involvement in televising rugby in New Zealand began in 1978 as a producer and he went on to direct nearly 200 Test Matches and accompanied the All Blacks on more than 20 tours. Service has always been at the forefront of innovation internationally, in recent years he has seamlessly integrated new techniques, including spider cam, into rugby coverage.

The New Zealand Rugby Players Association Kirk Award has been presented for the first time in the ASB Rugby Awards ceremony. The award is given to a person who has made a significant contribution on behalf of professional players. Justin Collins has played 16 seasons of first class rugby. He earned a Super Rugby century with appearances for the Blues and Chiefs, captained Auckland to the provincial championship in 2005 and played over 100 games for Northland. As a long-serving Board member of the Players Association he has delivered great outcomes for players and the game.

Volunteers are the life blood of rugby. Gary Donovan from Suburbs Rugby Club in Auckland has won the Charles Monro Volunteer of the Year. Gary is involved at all levels of the game: he sets up for game day at Suburbs, supports Auckland’s representative teams and helps out at Blues events, performing a huge range of tasks that help to strengthen rugby in the region.
Beauden Barrett secured his second award of the night when he picked up the Investec Super Rugby Player of the Year. Barrett’s play-maker skills helped lead the Hurricanes to their inaugural Investec Super Rugby title while notching up 223 points to be the competition’s top points scorer in 2016.

This year’s World Rugby Player of the Year nominee and Wellingtonian of the Year Dane Coles (Ngati Porou) captained his beloved Hurricanes to thier first Investec Super Rugby title before taking things up a gear with the All Blacks. His exceptional year of success has seen him named the Tom French Memorial Maori Player of the Year.

History was made this year in Rio when sevens made its debut at the summer Olympics and the Blacks Ferns Sevens team was right there, securing silver for our country. The team’s ever reliable captain, Sarah Goss, has been named winner of the Black Ferns Sevens Player of the Year. Goss carried a huge workload in 2016 adding another 30 World Series matches and eight tries to her record before heading to Rio for the Olympics.

Rieko Ioane remarkable year started with the Sevens and ended with an All Blacks debut. He has won this year’s Richard Crawshaw Memorial All Blacks Sevens Player of the Year. In a huge year for the 19-year-old, Ioane was the top try scorer during the 2015-2016 World Sevens Series, with 28 tries and an average of more than six points per match. Ioane ended his year with selection for the 2016 Vista All Blacks Northern Tour.

In 2016, the Black Ferns secured the world’s top ranking as they ended their year undefeated with a series win in New Zealand against Australia, before heading north for wins over England, Canada and Ireland. New Zealand Rugby Women’s Player of the Year Selica Winiata was a try-scoring machine in 2016. Five tries for the Black Ferns Sevens were followed by nine in the Farah Palmer Cup and nine from her five Tests for the Black Ferns, including four tries against Australia in the opening Test of the Laurie O’Reilly Memorial Trophy defence in Auckland.

Jordie Barrett had an outstanding year. His first season in the Mitre 10 Cup saw him play in all 12 of Canterbury's games en route to yet another Premiership title. Playing fullback, or in the midfield, he scored 123 points, including five tries, and produced more offloads than any other player in the competition, helping him to secure this year’s Men’s NPC Cup Player of the Year.

In addition to his NPC success Jordie Barrett had a big campaign with the New Zealand Under 20 side, scoring 52 points at the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Manchester this year. He was rewarded with an apprentice spot on the Vista All Blacks Northern Tour helping him to earn the award for New Zealand Rugby Age Grade Player of the Year.

Glen Jackson has picked up the Referee of the Year Award for the fourth successive year after an outstanding 2016. This year he refereed at the highest level, including Six Nations, the Investec Rugby Championship and the Super Rugby Final between the Hurricanes and Lions.

Young wing Te Rangatira Waitokia is the Heartland Championship Player of the Year. He burst onto the scene for Wanganui this year and scored 12 tries, with a four-try bag against Poverty Bay. He was rewarded with selection to the New Zealand Heartland XV that played New Zealand Marist and toured Fiji in November.

Isiah Punivai’s try for Christ’s College against Christchurch Boys High in their annual interschool match was a team affair. Reclaiming the ball in their own 22 Christ’s worked the ball the length of the field with Punivai scoring from his second touch of the ball in the movement to secure Sky Television Fans Try of the Year Award.