Crusaders snubbed in Canty awards
They captured the Super Rugby title, but the Crusaders have been controversially overlooked as a finalist for the annual Canterbury Sports Awards.
Regional sports organisations can only nominate one team or person per category. The Canterbury Rugby Union (CRU) opted for the national title-winning Canterbury women’s NPC side in the team section, rather than the Crusaders.
Under first year head coach, Scott Robertson, the Crusaders took out the Super Rugby crown for the first time since 2008.
They had a stellar 2017, winning 17 of their 18 games in the competition and knocked over the Lions in Johannesburg 25-17 in the decider.
The Canterbury women claimed their first Farah Palmer Cup after seven finals failures, overcoming Counties Manukau 13-7 in the final through a 78th minute try to No 8 Rebecca Todd and sideline conversion from Black Ferns halfback Kendra Cocksedge.
While their breakthrough effort was a notable achievement, Crusaders supporters will argue their title success was in a multi-national competition that involved winning a final on foreign soil. The fact they hadn’t triumphed in Super Rugby for nearly a decade made the milestone a memorable one.
Canterbury’s men’s NPC rugby team could also count themselves unlucky. They made it three premiership titles on the bounce and an astonishing nine in 10 years after beating Tasman 35-13 in the Mitre 10 Cup final.
Joining the Canterbury women’s rugby side as team of the year finalists for the March 9 awards are the Canterbury men’s cricket side, who won the 50-over Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield four-day title last summer. They are joined by the Canterbury Wildcats women’s basketballers, who won their second straight national title, and the successful Canterbury boxing team.
Nine nominations were received in the Canterbury team of the year category.
CRU chief executive Nathan Godfrey did not return calls yesterday. Crusaders chairman and CRU board member Grant Jarrold declined to comment.
Sport Canterbury chief executive Julyan Falloon said each sport was eligible to submit one nominee per category, as had always been the rule.
‘‘We don’t accept multiple nominations. That’s always been the way.
‘‘It’s up to the regional body to make the call. Once the regional body forward their nomination for a specific sport, then the [judging] panel judges the sports against the sports on merit to get an overall winner.’’