Black Ferns rugby’s top team

It was fitting that in the year that New Zealand rugby made its most positive moves in embracing the women’s game, the Black Ferns have been named team of the year for the first time at the sport’s annual awards dinner in Auckland.

The award for the world champion Kiwi women, topping the Super Rugby-winning Crusaders and New Zealand under-20 men who also won their global tournament, capped a night of successes for the Black Ferns and women’s rugby on Thursday.

The five-time world champions added to the World Rugby team of the year title they secured in Monaco at the World Rugby Awards earlier this month.

All Blacks lock and Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock picked up two awards as he was named the Kelvin R Tremain Memorial player of the year and Super Rugby player of the year.

All Blacks Sevens legend DJ Forbes also collected two awards, with the Richard Crawshaw Memorial award for sevens player of the year and the NZRPA Kirk award.

Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore was named the coach of the year, for his leadership in a standout World Cup campaign, while dropping only one match throughout the year. Star winger Portia Woodman’s exceptional try for the Black Ferns against USA at the World Cup was also voted by the public as the fans’ try of the year.

Black Fern loose forward and national sevens captain Sarah Goss was named women’s player of the year after a World Cup campaign where she started every match. She adds this title to the best female athlete in Oceania at the ANOC (Association of Olympic Committee) awards in Prague last month.

Meanwhile, her sevens teammate Ruby Tui was named Black Ferns sevens player of the year. Tui’s powerful and aggressive game was at its best in 2017, also earning her a nomination for World Rugby sevens player of the year.

During the evening, Black Ferns skipper Fiao’o Fa’amausili was presented with a greenstone mere, in recognition of her 50-test match milestone, achieved during their World Cup campaign, making her the most capped Black Fern of all time.

The newly-introduced Duane Monkley and Fiao’o Fa’amausili Medals were presented for the first time to acknowledge the best players in the Mitre 10 Cup and Farah Palmer Cup respectively. This is the first year of a new category to recognise the best of the women’s provincial competition. New Zealand Rugby’s accolade for exceptional service, the Steinlager Salver, was awarded to Wayne Smith for his phenomenal service to rugby in New Zealand.

His career in the black jersey began as a player in 1980 and ended earlier this year having been a key member of the coaching team that led the All Blacks to back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles.

An impressive 12 months with the whistle saw Wellingtonian Ben O’Keeffe named referee of the year.