Brilliant Du Preez snubbed
29 Nov 2009
Fourie du Preez has unbelievably been overlooked for the IRB World Player of the Year award, with Richie McCaw claiming the top prize.
In a decision even more perplexing than the 2008 one which saw Wales wing Shane Williams win the award ahead of more deserving candidates, McCaw, who was anonymous in three defeats to the Springboks this year and nowhere near as prolific for the Crusaders as he has been in the past, was preferred to the superlative Du Preez.
The Bulls man was without peer in world rugby in 2009, playing a central role in the franchises Super 14 and Currie Cup success and in the Springboks’ Tri-Nations and British & Irish Lions campaigns.
The snub, and that of coach Peter de Villiers, who has lost just four of 12 Tests in 2009 (one of those in which he opted to field an understrength side with the Lions series sealed), for the Coach of the Year award (Ireland’s Declan Kidney won), won’t do anything to dispel the growing perception that the IRB has an axe to grind with the world champions.
The selection panel of Will Greenwood, Gavin Hastings, Raphaël Ibanez, Francois Pienaar, Agustin Pichot, Scott Quinnell, Tana Umaga, Paul Wallace and convenor John Eales, supposedly watched over 63 hours of action from 49 matches, awarding points to the three players they thought stood out in each match.
If this is the case, those who voted for McCaw either conveniently forgot to take delivery of the Springboks’ footage, or, despite their illustrious careers, know nothing about the game.
Let us also not forget that they omitted other exceptional Springboks Victor Matfield, Heinrich Brussow and Morne Steyn from the shortlist, all of whom have outshone the other candidates – Ireland’s Jamie Heaslip and Brian O’Driscoll, Australia’s Matt Giteau and England’s Tom Croft.
The IRB couldn’t be so blatantly biased as to overlook the Springboks for the Team of the Year award, and they deservedly scooped won that category, but it doesn’t ease the sense of frustration at being cheated out of the two other premier prizes.
By Ryan Vrede
354 Comments
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29 Nov 2009, 20:51 pm
Skop – W%&**$er. IRB even bigger WA#%^&s
29 Nov 2009, 21:03 pm
I believe ireland deserved team of the year. Had South Africa gone even 2-1 on the tour I would have thought they deserved it but the tour was a big failure. We cannot claim fatigue and then claim any relevance in our series win over the Lions. Brussouw should have been player of the year I think Fdp was pretty poor in the last three games which cost him.
What i cannot understand is the number one ranking. There I think the boks should be ranked first. The All Blacks also lost 4 games including 2 at home and the boks won the tri-nations that should have ensured extra ranking points.
29 Nov 2009, 21:07 pm
suck it up your one dimensional doos hero is the most fallible idiot on the rugby field between him and his fly half they practically lost against France and Ireland. The pair of them don’t have half a f.ng clue in hell when push comes to shove.
Elevate a half baked slow distributing idiot into a rugby god and expect a whole lot more gnashing and wailing watching your team lose after kicking every decent go forward ball away to nowhere. These palooka’s got seriously zero idea about turning games around. Between Fdp and M. Steyn is exactly where we lost the plot yesterday or can’t you exactly see it square in the face how pathetic pedantic useless this slow coach is behind the scrum especially at the breakdown ball slower than a grandmother on second rate valium. Pathetic is hardly the word for such poor useless service and kicking rubbish strategy.
29 Nov 2009, 21:13 pm
@skopskiet: So you feel quite strongly about this?
29 Nov 2009, 21:38 pm
@skopskiet:
FDP made sticky with your wife didn’t he?
29 Nov 2009, 21:39 pm
@malcolm:
This tour doesn’t count towards the award, the 2008 tour does.
29 Nov 2009, 21:46 pm
and you don’t ? Watching these hyped up hopeless twats practically give away every possible go forward opportunity on a plate to the opposition because of their sh’t scared backward thinking negative cowardly kicking **** rubbish due only to one thing, pure unadulterated second grade negative idiocy and cowardice. Wtf do these useless half backs think they doing kicking every f.ng god damn ball up in the air. Have they not got eyes in their idiotic heads to see what damage it does not only to the psyche of their team but to the entire negative strategy they employ. Pure pathetic one dimensional trash rubbish they learned from who exactly. Jake White, the senior player coaches, who the hell orchestrates such dismal non evolved **** idiotic delinquency on a rugby field? I’d like to know, because whoever it is they should be shot for killing Sa rugby stone dead in its tracks. I never witnessed such diabolical debased rubbish on a rugby field almost as pathetic as Streauli’s 3-53 fiasco or Whites 0-49
29 Nov 2009, 21:52 pm
centurian f.kwit your an idiot twat punkass palooka prick. Catch a wake up f.kwit twat *** fool. Not sure who’s worse stuck in their idiotic archaic dinosaur ignorant heads you or Fdp. Twat *** idiot.
29 Nov 2009, 21:59 pm
@skopskiet: Geez bud, you sure know how to make yourself look mal.
29 Nov 2009, 22:15 pm
“John Smit said it best when he pointed to two missed penalty kicks at the end of the half as potentially game-costing”
If you have to rely on two penalty kicks to beat FREAKING IRELAND, then you are in teh wrong side of teh pool to start off with.
FFS Ireland is a side that has YET to beat the AB’s, EVER. This was shoddy, DAMN SHODDY. The entire tour was badly organised and poorly thought out, and the tactical analysis was bad. If Smit could not get his boys to play for pride, and cjhange tactics when they weren’t working (until 2 minutes from teh end) then Smits leadership is in doubrt for me from now on.
The boks have played their best rugby just after when they were trying to run too much, and then they went more to the centre between 10 man rugby and running rugby. They have not played total rugby (i.e. probing all around the park all teh time – not just when they need to). The backs they have are workld class, and now it is time that they realise it and give them ashot too. Or maybe teh forwards are just too damn lazy to get across to clean?
SIES! That performance was lame and not worthy of being called a Bok performance- especially the forwards.
29 Nov 2009, 22:22 pm
Will flukety fluke be coaching winning ways?
29 Nov 2009, 22:26 pm
LOL…i see even JW is being blamed for the tour.
some funny **** on here tonight.
so in summary we had a helluva great scrum and we got fooked.
29 Nov 2009, 22:30 pm
Smit must retire now. Its time. And Matfield maybe close on his heels. Time to f.off and rake in the profits from all that cauldron hype. Time to start playing damn rugby again. I’m almost sick to death of this **** we been dished up since 2002 or thereabouts its time to start turning the corner.
Pdv kick these doose out its time for some proper total rugby like Ab’s showed against France or like we got glimpses of last year against Aus at Ellis Park or like Mallet’s team played in 97-98. This kak we getting fed as springbok strengths is the biggest load of garbage yet under the sun. Let it die with the legacies of Jake White and John Smit both and maybe Victor Matfield too, but its seriously now time to move on. If they can’t do that much then god almighty I fear the absolute worst for 2010 and 2011. So help me.
Pdv you better have the balls to call the shots and cull what seriously needs culling, its now or never meneer.
29 Nov 2009, 22:38 pm
usual Sa f’ak’d up psyche that fooks itself in the eye. Nothing new, same old same old f’ak’d up idiotic bravado filled dinosaur thinking hype f’ak’d us in the eye again. That and an inability from senior palooka’s to see or read the script on the field and a penchant for kicking f’ng rugby balls up in the goddamn air for 80 diabolical minutes solid. Thats about what fook’d us in the eye. Like usual we fook’d ourselves. Like the thick idiotic dickheads we are.
29 Nov 2009, 22:38 pm
Yup Fdp lost it here this last month
and Richie won it with ABs wins
29 Nov 2009, 22:41 pm
a great scrumming frontrow, which all the kenners wanted.
a great fetcher, which all the kenners wanted.
…and we still got fooked by ireland nogal…now what?
now it looks like blame being lade onto a halfback pairing who in running for player of the year, won a BIL series, the 3N by a 5-1 thrashing and a record S14 smashing.
this team only going to get better – what they need to do is manage the senior players and pick a very different rested hungry (but merit 2nd string) side for EOY tour next year, tho its true the senior players game must also improve in several aspects and this kicking is bullshit, they;ve made the mistake of buying into some idiotic kick ‘n chase line invented by the press and instead moved away from the real reason they were winning – hard committed numbers at the breakdown – irrespective of what the kenners say its not the scrums what win matches.
29 Nov 2009, 22:47 pm
its very simple the irish and french are out dom doosing us, they were tougher, harder and more committed at the breakdown.
don’t make a difference if you got diego maradonna creating at halfback in that scenario.
29 Nov 2009, 22:53 pm
we should not be losing to those irish fellas with the talent in this bokke outfit, but nevertheless they thoroughly deserved their win as a result of their play at the breakdown, if you cannot match it, they will win and did.
29 Nov 2009, 22:59 pm
@cab: You will continue making excuses for the blue eyed boys of the team. At least AJ was injured and the blame could not be put squarely on his lack of tackling ability. Cab perhaps you must re-visit this tour and pretend that you have not seen FDP before. Let me warn you though, you might, just using the evidence, think FDP should not be near a Bok jersey. But let the truth be told that is exactly how he played.
29 Nov 2009, 23:01 pm
@Shakes:
so you are suggesting that the reason the bokke are losing is because of one of the greatest rugby players of his generation?
29 Nov 2009, 23:08 pm
@cab: Yes Cab the last two we lost he had a major hand in it. Did you watch any of the other matches? The other teams don’t kick away possession as much as he does.
29 Nov 2009, 23:12 pm
Wasn’t the scrum that got us drilled. We lost it behind the scrum. No two ways about it Fdp and Morne Steyn lost this test match like giving it away on a gilt edged plate. Forget the loose ball or the line outs where they disrupted us, the area we lost this game was in the backs, same as nearly every game before through our idiotic 2004 – 2007 penchant for dom doos rugby we gone all the way back there to kick the f.ng damn thing up in the air because we think we can win the game without the f.ng ball. In other words idiotic Jake White trash rubbish senior player f’ak’d up kak doos rugby defense wins games rubbish. Kick it away and chase all game long. Palooka idiotic rugby.
Spin it any which way you like it but Fdp and M. Steyn lost this game on a plate nobody else. Matfield and Smit can be charged as accomplices in the debacle but chief destroyer of Sa hope was Fdp destroyer in chief. M. Steyn his 2Ic.
29 Nov 2009, 23:15 pm
forget the scrum and halfback, the reason they losing is cos they not playing dom doos rugby as it should be played and winning the collisions. we were beat up at the breakdown again, you cannot attack with that, and that rubbish about the scrums as an attacking platform is pretty much just that, it can happen but its very rare – instead your backline only moves from creating go-forward at the breakdown – by winning the collision thru dom doos intent and grit.
29 Nov 2009, 23:17 pm
Finally the gameplan has been shown up as not being sustainable. If PDV and the brains trust have taken note and act accordingly then this EOYT has been a resounding success. The reason I say this is it forces us to change to a more ball in hand strategy that will have a chance of winning the WC. We have already seen a major plus where certain players plying their trade up north can make a great contribution to our quest of a successful defence. PDV must now step up to the plate and get the team comfortable playing with the ball instead of being living tackle bags. Cheers I’m out.
29 Nov 2009, 23:18 pm
hell, we scrummed them into the ground, did;nt make the slightest difference.
29 Nov 2009, 23:20 pm
Who says he’s the greatest rugby player of his generation? You? jake White? Who?
I say he’s practically dismal in some games. Throughout 2008 totally useless. And in certain circumstances like on this tour he’s been the worst option we could have had behind the pack.
Yes you want to know ygwy we lost to Ireland and perhaps France too. Fdp. Don’t need to look any much further than that. Dom doos Bulls style thick as two planks rugby kick the ball to no f.ng where. Thats what beat us. Best rugby player of his generation was the major fundamental reason we lost yesterday and also highly instrumental in our loss to France also. Morne Steyn didn’t help matters either one little bit.
Didn’t you watch the game. Did you not see every goddamn attack opportunity get shunted up in the air to nowhere straight into oppo counter attack hands? Did you not see the pathetic poor pedantic service this best player in his generation serves up as his contribution to our dismal non eventful attack momentum. What did you see if you missed all that?
29 Nov 2009, 23:23 pm
i dont blame PdV, apart from his midweek quota selections, his selections for ireland were what all were calling for, they got their scrumming and fetching specialist – the players need to be up for it. ireland and france wanted it more. its a shame, and the bokke were not totally useless, but they were not at their peak – all they need to is pick maybe 5 or 6 different players for the EOY tour, get them drilled as a unit before leaving and we get different results.
29 Nov 2009, 23:23 pm
HAHAHA, what a JOKE this award has become.
“Oh lets not give any awards to the Springboks, they brought the game into dispute by wearing armbands”
Pathetic. Brussow dominated McCaw without cheating in every single game and has never had a bad game this year.
How can you give an award to a player so lesser in quality?
I’m pretty sure it was John Eales, he also didn’t want to give the award to Habana in 2007, he’s just a tall, long bloke who loves his ANZAC spirit, nothing wrong with that… is there?
The IRB are a disease. FDP is the real player of the year.
29 Nov 2009, 23:26 pm
@skopskiet:
You ask for a worldwide vote on who the best scrumhalf has been the last 5 years and there only going to be one winner.
i agree with you tho that he has become a bit precious and has lost some of his sharp strong attacking around the fringes and his kicking is now absolutely overblown.
29 Nov 2009, 23:31 pm
you can’t see it in front of your face. We won first phase scrum ball like never before. First 10 minutes we utilised the advantage once and scored a try. Then low and behold Fdp and M. Steyn kick everything. Not one or two balls but every living goddamn thing they get from the scrum they kick it backward and forward like ping pong gaining grounds and watch Kearney and co. come storming back at them. And Sexton out kicking and out running Steyn on the day.
Got f.all to do with out ou doosing them. That we did fine we out ou doosed them solid. What we failed to do is to play any rugby at all after that. We KICKED it Again and A Goddamn gain and again we kicked it away into their relieving grateful hands. Can’t you see the simple problem. Fdp and Morne Steyn gifted them this game. Nobody else beside perhaps Kirchner and Pienaar and JPP who also kicked everytime they should have ran.
29 Nov 2009, 23:32 pm
@skopskiet:
Shut up, would you rather have your cape town hero Ricky? The only reason the up and under tactic didn’t work was due to not having the hard chasers of Pierre Spies and Jean de Villiers that apply real pressure, that and the Irish back three aren’t islanders and actually know how to catch a ball. Are players not supposed to follow a game plan that the coach lays out?
Idiot.
29 Nov 2009, 23:33 pm
you not listening to what anyone is saying. i am saying, the scrum was fantastic, brussow is fantastic…and yet why did we lose?
you say its the halfbacks, i say its the breakdown collisions.
29 Nov 2009, 23:37 pm
@Kobus Kitty: good to see you whinging Kobus… haha as anyone who knows rugby knows, the player of the year includes last years AI internationals, a time when Ritchie was supreme… He came back from injury against Brussouw this year…
still going on with the victim mentality bwahaha as the AI’s this year have shown, when your team cant execute its very limited game plan they have absolutely no other ideas…
must have been the Australasian conspiracy that nailed you guys in Europe huh? how else do you explain 1 win from 5 in the NH, yet my team continues to march through the NH, not conceding a try to test match opposition in 2 tours… ouch…
29 Nov 2009, 23:39 pm
Thus spoke zarathustra – its about time someone put that scrumming nonsense in its place.
29 Nov 2009, 23:44 pm
I seriously don’t give to goddamn hoot’s who they vote for as best scrum half and best rugby player on the planet is. Don’t mean squat sh’t. Fdp lost the game yesterday. Like he was highly instrumental losing 2 weeks ago in France and like he was highly instrumental in losing us the tri nations in 2008.
So I care absolutely stuff all what people think and how they vote. What is blatantly obvious is this greatest f.ng idiot behind the scrum is losing us games we should be winning. Not once not twice but plenty, and nobody sees it. He’s a liability in certain circumstances yet he’s been hyped up into this rugby god. The guy is pathetic as a distributor one of the worst in the game. Useless in fact. And this kicking **** is killing us. So anybody want to vote for him as best idiot this or that go ahead wont change squat that on this tour and in other situations before Fdp has been more a liability than an asset. M. Steyn not much better. Between the two of them they f’d up our running opportunity and momentum something chronic.
Kak sleg in other words diabolical useless weak rubbish. Pathetic rugby that loses games and don’t win squat. So vote for the loser all you like don’t make him a winner, just an over hyped up loser nothing more.
29 Nov 2009, 23:46 pm
So to summarize:
SA have a scumming specialist in BJ. We win the scrums.
SA have a fetching specialist in brussow. We win turnovers.
SA have a lineout specialist in Matfield. We win lineouts.
France and Ireland not renowned for their scrum, none of them play with a specialist fetcher, and none of them have a lineout specialist. Yet they win the test matches.
The golden rule of rugby is win the collisions at the breakdown.
We were getting no forward momentum.
We were getting turned into the tackle.
We were not getting over the adv line.
We lost.
29 Nov 2009, 23:46 pm
Im still trying to find that local Keo-blogger that has said “you know what, FdP was superb at times this year with great performances but he faded noticeably on tour whereas McCaw had started slowly as he recovered from a serious injury and his form has built to a magnificent peak against the form team of 2009, France at home, and those 2 MoM awards show that he deserved to be Player of the Year on the ABs unbeaten NH tour”.
But, hey, look on the bright side. At least this way youve got 1 more thing to moan about til the season starts again next year.
29 Nov 2009, 23:48 pm
@poppa69:
Oh well, with Richie McCaw winning, at least we don’t get an angry POPPA69 blogging some racist remarks like he did during the all blacks Tri-nations campaign (that I don’t need to mention AGAIN) or do you want me to POPPA? should I repeat your words?
McCaw was injured for a good part of this year as well. Disgusting. The IRB might as well have just flushed this award down the toilet.
29 Nov 2009, 23:51 pm
@Kobus Kitty: hahahaha never made a mistake in your life Kobus, must be hard being so perfect… and all your talk is just as rascist, so a fine one to keep bringing it up… shows the measure of a man if he has to keep resorting to one mistake a person made almost 5 months ago… still, it must help your hurting and fragile ego now the boks have been shown up in the NH… lucky Rolland let you guys get away with so much in this years 3Ns huh??
29 Nov 2009, 23:54 pm
@skopskiet: @ 157
wooooooooooo horsey. put down your weapon and step away from the victim.
29 Nov 2009, 23:54 pm
go get f’ak’d Kobus. You can’t handle it that your dom doos idiot Fdp f.k’d up our game solid. Between him and your other Bulls plank we lost every possibility of getting anything remotely reminiscent of a rugby strategy going.
If it means getting some decent ball to backs I don’t care who it is, Ricky January or who. But if they can provide Some ball just SOME damn ball to the back line it would be a damn far cry better than the dismal rubbish trash **** service that best useless idiot twat scrum half rugby player god in the world FAILED to do for two tests on the trot.
So you f.ng Bulls delinquents can’t see it staring you in the damn face but Fdp was the Sole idiot along with Morne Steyn who f’d up any chances we had of winning this test which we should have done at a canter if those two palooka twats would have spun the ball instead of kicking 95% AWAY!!
29 Nov 2009, 23:54 pm
@skopskiet:
Its your opinion versus the rugby worlds. FDP is a wizard.
29 Nov 2009, 23:58 pm
lol, ok i’m out.
we win in 2011 in new zealand, bank on it, too much talent.
30 Nov 2009, 00:00 am
@cab: yep, cause your second stringers were so convincing versus leister and saracens
30 Nov 2009, 00:02 am
@skopskiet:
Oh yes, Oh yes… I bet you would have liked Ricky to be in place of FDP.
I want you to do something okay? Look passed the color of FDP’s skin.
FDP this year scored two tries in the Super 14 final.
Set up tries in the Currie Cup final.
Set up and finished the try in the final Tri-nations match.
Set up 2 tries in the Lions tour.
Set up and scored a try against the Wallabies in perth.
Scored and set up a try against Italy.
That’s off the top of my head, there are many more things he has done this year.
Stop making up things about his passing, they are crisp, fast and always to the mark.
30 Nov 2009, 00:05 am
@malcolm:
The 3N points re rankings uses the same formula for other games.
fact is Boks lost 4/5 in Europe plus a loss at home v Lions. You are also awarded higher points if you win away – thats where the AB’s got their noses in front – their away wins.
Hell, imagine the crying off the roof tops if the AB’s had lost 4 up north this year, you’d all have proclaimed NZ had died and the world was feasting on its rotting corpse.
As minders of Bill, your lot were a disgrace to the game regarding your performances up north this year.
Ritchies reward is a reflection of his performances across the year, his impact on teh team, and of course who he is up against, his consistency of excellence was ahead of FdP’s, its quite simple really.
30 Nov 2009, 00:06 am
@skopskiet:
HA HA HA, wow, I hit a nerve.
So it is personal between you and FDP. Come on fella, spill the beans.
FDP you biscuit!!
30 Nov 2009, 00:08 am
No not the collisions. The ball in The AIR the ball OUT OF hand. Thats what lost us the game. In other words we GAVE them the ball on a silver platter and said come run at us we don’t like playing with the ball in hand like Ab’s do, we like playing catch up rugby we like playing WITHOUT the ball. This the game we been bred on. This is our strengths this is how we like to cough up games. We like to KICK the ball AWAY to the opposition. This is why we our own worst enemy and this is why we LOSE games we should actually win without much sweat. Like yesterday.
Who lost the game. Not the loosies in the collisions. Not the tight forwards this time. Not even the line out that we lost far more than we should have. But where we really LOST it for keeps is when we KICKED the ball to them and said you have it. Defense wins games this is our ou doos strategy this how we like to play WITHOUT the goddamn ball in hand.
How pathetically ignorant stupid is THAT?
So to sum up AGAIN. Fdp and M. Steyn LOST us the test match vs Ireland no one else.
30 Nov 2009, 00:09 am
Boys, we can argue with our Kiwi brothers all night, at the end of the day, its trophies that matter.
And we got a truckload of them.
30 Nov 2009, 00:10 am
@poppa69:
THREE – NILL
Tell me, how ANGRY were you to make such remarks? It obviously wasn’t that sort of deep depression, grieving anger of getting kicked out of yet another world cup, it was a different kind of anger to that, wasn’t it? I think your anger during the Tri-Nations had more RAGE than that of your anger from the world cup. I guess because you think the Tri-Nations is “your” cup. Shame man, I can see why you want the World Cup so badly because for me – winning the 3N cup didn’t even feel a fraction as good as winning the World Cup… for the second time.
Ag, Shame.
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