Barrett brothers, All Blacks clean up awards
Auckland: Beauden and Jordie capped a special year for the Barrett family by scooping four gongs between them at the New Zealand Rugby awards on Thursday. The awards, held at Auckland’s Sky City convention centre, saw Beauden claim the Super Rugby and overall Kelvin R Tremain player of the year titles, following on from his World Rugby equivalent, after a superb season at first five-eighth for the Hurricanes and All Blacks. Barrett was the leading scorer in Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship, scoring 152 points for the All Blacks in 2016. After his own feats for the championshipwinning Canterbury team and NZ under 20s, teenage star Jordie picked up Mitre 10 Cup and age grade player of the year double. He scored 123 points, five tries and produced more offloads than any other player in the provincial competition. Those combined awards bookended a memorable 12 months for the Barrett family, with fellow brother Scott making his test debut and featuring in all four end of season assignments after shining at lock for the Crusaders. The All Blacks dominated the other major prizes, taking out team of the year while Steve Hansen was rewarded with his fifth successive coach of the year after his men set a world record 18 consecutive tier one victories and finished 2016 as holders of all the trophies they compete for. Their cabinet includes the World Cup, Rugby Championship, Bledisloe Cup for a 14th year in a row, and they also swept Wales 3-0 in June. The All Blacks lost one match from 14 this year, the defeat against Ireland in Chicago, despite losing over 800 caps and some of the game’s biggest names post World Cup. Dane Coles, who captained the Hurricanes to their maiden Super Rugby title and regularly stood out for the All Blacks, was named Tom French Memorial Maori player of the year. Rieko Ioane was a somewhat surprising choice as Richard Crawshaw Memorial sevens player of the year. The 19-year-old was the top try scorer during the 2015-2016 World Sevens Series, with 28 tries. Ioane also ended his year with an All Blacks debut. Captain Sarah Goss, who led her team to an Olympic silver medal, secured the Black Ferns sevens player of the year. title Goss carried a huge workload in 2016, adding another 30 World Series matches and eight tries before heading to Rio. Women’s player of the year went to Selica Winiata, who scored five tries for the sevens team; nine in the Farah Palmer Cup and nine from her five tests for the Black Ferns.
Mitre 10 Heartland Championship player - Te Rangatira Waitokia (Wanganui) Mitre 10 Cup player- Jordie Barrett (Canterbury) Richard Crawshaw Memorial All Blacks Sevens player- Rieko Ioane (Auckland)
Fans Try of the Year- Isaiah Punivai (Christ’s College) Black Ferns Sevens Player- (Manawatu) Super Rugby player- Tom French Memorial Maori Player- Coles (Ngati Porou) New Zealand Rugby Women’s Player- Winiata (Manawatu)
Steinlager Salver for an Outstanding Con - tribution to New Zealand Rugby Gavin Service Coach of the Year-Steve Hansen (All Blacks) Team of the Year- All Blacks Kelvin Tremain Memorial player- Sarah Goss Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes) Dane Selica Beauden