Jimmy gets the nod from fans and players
JIMMY Gopperth scooped the two top awards at Wasps’ end-of-season presentation dinner in front of a 600-strong audience at the Ricoh.
The Kiwi ace joined compere Martin Bayfield from BT Sport on stage to collect the supporters’ player-of-theyear award early in the evening.
And he returned to the spotlight a couple of hours later to receive the players’ player-of-the-season trophy, ahead of the shortlisted Christian Wade, Tommy Taylor and Thomas Young.
The experienced utility back was clearly delighted to receive both awards.
“I’m blown away, very humbled and very honoured,” he said.
“When you train and play with your peers every day you spend a lot of time with them, and I’m so grateful to receive an award from them.
“I have so much respect for all my teammates, and really enjoy playing with them. I can only do what I do because of the way the team plays, and every time I pull on the jersey is a highlight.
“Winning the supporters award is a real pinnacle because of how much they mean to the players, and what the club means to them.
“A lot of the supporters travel miles to watch us since the move, and we really respect that, and try to do our thing on the pitch to reward that as their support is outstanding.”
The 33-year-old former Newcastle and Leinster star has excelled in three positions this season.
He began the campaign at inside centre when Kyle Eastmond was injured, and developed a midfield partnership with Danny Cipriani and Elliot Daly which bore immediate fruit.
Gopperth has since played a few games at full back, as well as having two short stints in his preferred fly half shirt, before reverting to No.12 where he seems certain to appear against Leicester in the upcoming Premiership semi-final.
He finished the 22-game league season as the Premiership’s top scorer with 266 points, including 58 success- ful conversions and 35 penalties, and is a man who revels in pressure situations.
This was clearly demonstrated by his late kicks against Tolouse and Exeter in the autumn which clinched results crucial to Wasps’ European and domestic campaigns.
However, the move into wider channels has allowed the former Auckland Blue and Wellington Hurricane to showcase the wider skill base developed as a youngster alongside some of the greats including Jonah Lomu.
Gopperth is not a big man by modern centre standards, but he has proved himself to be an aggressive defender, who tackles well above his weight.
And while his distribution skills were already well-honed from years in the No.10 shirt, few of us knew about his turn of pace, which has delivered nine tries this season.
It is amazing to now recall that Gopperth’s Wasps career got off to an indifferent start at the beginning of last season.
His citing for thumping Matt Tait at Leicester caused him to miss crucial European games but those days were of course long forgotten by the time his touchline conversion clinched the best game of the last two seasons – a comefrom-behind European Cup quarter-final win over Exeter last April.
And since then he has simply gone from strength to strength, which despite his age made the award of an extended contract a mere formality.
Indeed, one loyal Wasps fan summed the situation up perfectly on Twitter following his double award success.
“He embodies everything good about Wasps on and off the pitch. Huge heart and one hell of a player.”
And so say all of us...