Each nation's standout player of the year.

by Looseheaded Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:29 am

Okay it's quite simple, who in your opinion has been each nation's standout player of the past year. You don't have to state your view on every country, but just the ones you feel capable of making fair judgement on.

Wales- Halfpenny
NZ- Sir Richard of McCaw
Argentina- Lobbe
England- Dan Cole

Continue and discuss...

by RubyGuby Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:31 am

Rhys Priestland has stood out more than anyone for Wales thumbsup

Robshaw for England and you can perm any 1 of 22 for Scotland

by **rodders** Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:50 am

Ireland:

Up until the summer I'd have gone for Kearney or Ferris but over the year a tie between Donnacha Ryan, Cian Healy and Rory Best.

by munkian Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:50 am

Wales - Lee Halfpenny or Toby Faletau (recently)

by OzT Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:05 am

Oz I would say Sharpe, notable mention Barnes

by Captain_Sensible Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:06 am

Scotland - Ryan Grant

by doctor_grey Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:10 am

To be fair, I didn't see too many of these matches. But, for me, Wales (Halfpenny) and Australia (Sharpe) are easy selections.

Not sure about the rest. Perhaps Hartley for England - one of the only Englishmen to make it through the Internationals with reputation intact. Uh oh. wait a minute.........

by TJ1 Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:25 am

Captain_Sensible wrote:Scotland - Ryan Grant

good call - I was struggling to think of a Scot worthy of a mention

by Bathite Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:29 am

TJ wrote:
Captain_Sensible wrote:Scotland - Ryan Grant

good call - I was struggling to think of a Scot worthy of a mention

Can't believe the old usual Visser cheerleaders haven't popped up yet!

by TJ1 Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:33 am

Hew didn't do very much or did you not notice? Looked half the player we know he can be but results on the ground are all that counts.

by Bathite Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:37 am

Did ok in the tour games, i thought it was over the whole year, not just the AIs. Still managed to score a few tries as well

by TJ1 Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:49 am

Na - having watched Visser for Edinburgh he did very little in the games he has played compared to how he can play. I don't know if it was nerves or if it was instruction but at this best he comes off his wing looking for the ball and pops up on the shoulder of the player needing support ( as he did for one of his allblack tries)

He appeared hesitant, nervous and just patrolled his wing.

by maestegmafia Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:53 am

Tough question for a Welshman to answer.

by glamorganalun Wed 28 Nov 2012, 4:24 pm

RubyGuby wrote:Rhys Priestland has stood out more than anyone for Wales
Robshaw for England and you can perm any 1 of 22 for Scotland

Agree, my thoughts exactly two Lions in the making Laugh

by chewed_mintie Wed 28 Nov 2012, 4:43 pm

One of McCaw, Cory Jane or Conrad Smith.

Though I'll bet my house on McCaw picking up a 4th Intl Player of the Year, though I think the person who will push him close will be Fernandez Lobbe

by Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler Wed 28 Nov 2012, 4:49 pm

Dan Coles the only England player to have consistently made his case as undropable, with Manu not that far off.

by bedfordwelsh Wed 28 Nov 2012, 6:03 pm

If we are going on about the past year then for us it is simply Dan Lydiate followed closley by JD.

Proved by how much we have missed them both the AI series.

by Imperialbigdave Wed 28 Nov 2012, 6:06 pm

Scotland was Rennie followed very closely by Grant

by Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler Wed 28 Nov 2012, 6:10 pm

Dan Coles should get a double mention as hes been pluralised and able to turn out for two nations at the same time. I guess its a recipricol agreement for Flutey , Hape and co.

by Comfort Wed 28 Nov 2012, 7:01 pm

bedfordwelsh wrote:If we are going on about the past year then for us it is simply Dan Lydiate followed closley by JD.

Proved by how much we have missed them both the AI series.

Bedford I was going to say the same thing.

For all the talk of Lydiate (overrated, underrated blah blah), you see how much his approach, work ethic and tackles are missed.

JD2 has been the best welsh back this year, including halfpenny. you only had to watch wales fail to break the line or create any space at all without him to see how important he has become.

by sean.c Wed 28 Nov 2012, 7:26 pm

For Ireland I would have to say Cian Healy. He's been an ever present in the starting XV and has been one of the standout players in every test, doing so well he as even targeted in the third test vs New Zealand.

by wales606 Wed 28 Nov 2012, 7:31 pm

Wales - Halfpenny
Scotland - Rennie?
Ireland - Healy
England - Dan Cole (perhaps it should be Farrell Rolling Eyes

)
France - Michalak (i guess?)
Italy - Barbiari
SA - Alberts
Aus - Sharpe
NZ - McCaw/Reid/Carter
Argentina - Lobbe (honorable mention to Albacete and Roncero)

by maestegmafia Wed 28 Nov 2012, 7:33 pm

bedfordwelsh wrote:If we are going on about the past year then for us it is simply Dan Lydiate followed closley by JD.

Proved by how much we have missed them both the AI series.

Jonathan Davies is a good call, I would go with that.

by bedfordwelsh Wed 28 Nov 2012, 7:57 pm

Comfort wrote:
bedfordwelsh wrote:If we are going on about the past year then for us it is simply Dan Lydiate followed closley by JD.

Proved by how much we have missed them both the AI series.

Bedford I was going to say the same thing.

For all the talk of Lydiate (overrated, underrated blah blah), you see how much his approach, work ethic and tackles are missed.

JD2 has been the best welsh back this year, including halfpenny. you only had to watch wales fail to break the line or create any space at all without him to see how important he has become.

JD made more in his one game than any of the others have in the last 3

by Knowsit17 Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:06 pm

For Wales I'd say Lydiate. Possibly the most consistent of the starters since before the WC. An incredible enthusiastic approach with a ever-high workrate and a massive presence in the contact area. Looking back on our last two games and the way Samoa and NZ have bullied us makes you realise that we lose an edge in abrasiveness when we lose Lydiate.

I wouldn't want to argue with anyone who said JD2 but Lydiate clinches it for me through sheer consistency.

by bedfordwelsh Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:10 pm

Knowsit,

No arguments from me and both have been sorely missed these last few games.

by InjuredYetAgain Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:14 pm

Scotland - cancelled due to lack of candidates although the ball boy at the half way line for the NZ match did seem to have a useful spin pass on him

by Submachine Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:16 pm

Think he missed all of the six nations but Tommy Bowe is creeping up my list of favourite player of all time

by AsLongAsBut100ofUs Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:27 pm

Imperialbigdave wrote:Scotland was Rennie followed very closely by Grant

Rennie as POTY and Grant as FOTY

by Hound_of_Harrow Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:53 pm

Eng - D Cole
Fra - L Picamoles
Ire - C Healy
Ita - S Parisse
Sco - R Rennie
Wal - J Davies

Arg - J M Fernandez Lobbe
Aus - N Sharpe
NZ - C Smith
SA - J P Pietersen

Sam - I Tekori

by InjuredYetAgain Wed 28 Nov 2012, 9:55 pm

Despite my earlier facetious comment, I agree that Ryan Grant is the find of the year (ASBO - I presume the F is for "find" and not "forward"?)

by TJ1 Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:00 pm

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Scotland - cancelled due to lack of candidates although the ball boy at the half way line for the NZ match did seem to have a useful spin pass on him

:-)

by AsLongAsBut100ofUs Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:00 pm

InjuredYetAgain wrote:Despite my earlier facetious comment, I agree that Ryan Grant is the find of the year (ASBO - I presume the F is for "find" and not "forward"?)

by theslosty Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:06 pm

England - Cole
France - Fofana
Ireland - Kearney
Scotland - Denton
Wales - Pries- ... Lydiate

Argentina - Lobbe
Australia - Sharpe
New Zealand - Dagg
South Africa - Habana

by AsLongAsBut100ofUs Wed 28 Nov 2012, 10:07 pm

theslosty wrote:England - Cole
France - Fofana
Ireland - Kearney
Scotland - Denton
Wales - Pries- ... Lydiate

Argentina - Lobbe
Australia - Sharpe
New Zealand - Dagg
South Africa - Habana

See what you've done there - like your style

by wasps Wed 28 Nov 2012, 11:24 pm

I think that Dan Cole being our standout player shows the problem with English rugby at the moment.
However, I've been trying to come up with someone else, and there really aren't any other options.

He's a more than adequate TH prop (I don't think I've ever seen him dominated) who spends a lot of time playing like a flanker.
You can't really ask much more from a prop.

However, you'd traditionally expect the standout player to be a back... (i.e. one of the glory positions).... and that's the problem with us at the moment.

by **NeilyBroon** Thu 29 Nov 2012, 11:03 am

Scotland - Traynor of course!

by GunsGerms Thu 29 Nov 2012, 11:31 am

Bungalow has been Irelands best player.

Dagg - NZ
Fofana - France
Lydiate - Wales
Lobbe - Argentina
Habana - SA
Scotland - Grant

by dummy_half Thu 29 Nov 2012, 1:59 pm

It's interesting that the Welsh here are largely praising Lydiate and JD2, and the first nomination for England was Hartley (although in the latter case Cole and Manu T have definitely played better than he has).

There are two related issues:
1 - How good is the back-up? Wales certainly seem short of inventiveness in midfield at the moment, so JD2 is a big miss, while England could well have beaten SA with a better line-out performance, which Hartley would probably have given.

2 - Sometimes you don't appreciate just how good a player is until he's not there. Seems to be the case with Lydiate to some extent - my impression as a neutral was that he was a solid player (a younger and more Welsh Joe Worsley), but it's obvious now he's absent how much he was the powerhouse for Wales at the breakdown.

by propdavid_london Thu 29 Nov 2012, 3:59 pm

Wales - Jonathan Davies
Scotland - Visser
Ireland - Healy
England - Cole or Launchbury
France - Foffana
Italy - Parisi
SA - Alberts
Aus - Ben Alexander (makes a huge difference)
NZ - Conrad Smith
Argentina - Roncero
Samoa - George Pisi

by nathan Thu 29 Nov 2012, 5:45 pm

propdavid_london wrote:Wales - Jonathan Davies
Scotland - Visser
Ireland - Healy
England - Cole or Launchbury
France - Foffana
Italy - Parisi
SA - Alberts
Aus - Ben Alexander (makes a huge difference)
NZ - Conrad Smith
Argentina - Roncero
Samoa - George Pisi

surely it's a bit early to say he's a stand out player. He's only played in what, two matches.

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