Pro 12 Dream Team Announced. (plus other award winners)

By 'Dream Team' we really mean Connacht plus guests....and in fairness who can argue with that.  I remember these guys had the ambition of finishing ahead of the Border Reivers.  Then it was finishing ahead of the Dragons or Aironi.

Isa Nacewa (Leinster) capt;
Matt Healy (Connacht),
Bundee Aki (Connacht),
Ben Te'o (Leinster),
Craig Gilroy (Ulster);
Sam Davies (Ospreys),
Kieran Marmion (Connacht);

Dennis Buckley (Connacht),
Tom McCartney (Connacht),
Finlay Bealham (Connacht);
Leone Nakarawa (Glasgow),
Ultan Dillane (Connacht);
CJ Stander (Munster),
Josh van der Flier (Leinster),
Cornell du Preez (Edinburgh)

Full list of other awards....

Guinness Pro12 Award Winners

Player: Bundee Aki (Connacht)

Coach: Pat Lam (Connacht)

Young Player: Sam Davies (Ospreys)

Try: Tommy Seymour (Glasgow)

Fair Play: Ulster

Golden Boot: Gareth Anscombe (Cardiff Blues)

Chairman's Award: John Muldoon (Connacht)

Ulster get the Fair Play Award?


Fair play lads.

Teachers F**king pets!

SecretFly wrote:Ulster get the Fair Play Award?


Fair play lads.

Teachers F**king pets!

Haha, its great to see after some of the things that have been levelled at us on here.

Wouldn't fight with much of that.  Sam Davies has been brilliant for the Os this season even if Ulster fans might feel that Jackson is never going to get put in the limelight.

Buckley and Bealham have been in the trenches all season and Bealham must be gutted if his injury in last match means he misses out on the one/two games that really matter.

Nakarawa has been superb, Glasgow will really miss him.

Aki has played a blinder - a selfless team man who shows what playing rugby means to New Zealanders wherever they play in the world.

I'd have put John Muldoon in as captain regardless if he was in the team or not.  He just deserves it.

Not so sure about Kieran Marmion as the best scrummie - Gareth Davies would be my pick.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Ulster get the Fair Play Award?


Fair play lads.

Teachers F**king pets!

Haha, its great to see after some of the things that have been levelled at us on here.

Well they were all true, obviously......

No surprise that most players are not regular internationals.

Congrats to Aki, well deserved.

Nice Celtic sounding back row of future Scottish and Irish internationals...


*dont actually know if josh van der flier is south african just having a guess

CraigS1874 wrote:Nice Celtic sounding back row of future Scottish and Irish internationals...


*dont actually know if josh van der flier is south african just having a guess

He is Irish, Dutch parents. No South African there at all.

He's from Dublin and he's already an Irish international.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

CraigS1874 wrote:Nice Celtic sounding back row of future Scottish and Irish internationals...


*dont actually know if josh van der flier is south african just having a guess

He is Irish, Dutch parents.  No South African there at all.

Eh, to be precise, his grandparents are Dutch - they came to Ireland in the 50's and settled in Arklow if I recall correctly.  His parents are Irish born.

Lots of love for Connacht, some justified other not really, particularly Bealham he has been good but i can think of a few players who did better. Nel, Ferrari, Edwards, Arhip and arguably Filise have all scrummaged better than him.

Hard to argue against any other choice though!

Pot Hale wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:

CraigS1874 wrote:Nice Celtic sounding back row of future Scottish and Irish internationals...


*dont actually know if josh van der flier is south african just having a guess

He is Irish, Dutch parents.  No South African there at all.

Eh, to be precise, his grandparents are Dutch - they came to Ireland in the 50's and settled in Arklow if I recall correctly.  His parents are Irish born.

Ah we'll get there in the end.

His grandparents moved from the Netherlands to Finglas in the 50s. Moved to Wicklow town in the 60s and his parents run the garden centre in Glenealy County Wicklow

VinceWLB wrote:Lots of love for Connacht, some justified other not really, particularly Bealham he has been good but i can think of a few players who did better. Nel, Ferrari, Edwards, Arhip and arguably Filise have all scrummaged better than him.

Hard to argue against any other choice though!

Possibly Bealham's continuing presence during the season helped.  He played in all 22 league games and plays both sides of the scrum and invariably finished on the winning side during the season.

WP Nel - 11 games Edinburgh
Ferrari - 17 games Treviso
Edwards - 16 games Scarlets
Arhip - 19 games Ospreys
Filise - 17 games Cardiff

Pot Hale wrote:
Possibly Bealham's continuing presence during the season helped.  He played in all 22 league games and plays both sides of the scrum and invariably finished on the winning side during the season.

WP Nel - 11 games Edinburgh
Ferrari - 17 games Treviso
Edwards - 16 games Scarlets
Arhip - 19 games Ospreys
Filise - 17 games Cardiff

I hope he will be fit and plays in the semi against Glasgow, i just don't rate him that highly and i think he benefited mainly from the tremendous job done by Dennis Buckley on the other side of the scrum.  Still playing all 22 games (albeit only for 60 seconds in the last round) is something to be applauded.

Wow really surprised James Davies wasn't named at seven. Pleased for Sam Davies, won the double at the ospreys awards too, he started the season so inconsistently but shone when the internationals came back.

Slightly surprised at Du Preez - he had a barnstorming first half of the season but has faded badly since the New Year, mainly due to our coaches non-rotation policy and him playinh 80 minutes week in week out!

VinceWLB wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:
Possibly Bealham's continuing presence during the season helped.  He played in all 22 league games and plays both sides of the scrum and invariably finished on the winning side during the season.

WP Nel - 11 games Edinburgh
Ferrari - 17 games Treviso
Edwards - 16 games Scarlets
Arhip - 19 games Ospreys
Filise - 17 games Cardiff

I hope he will be fit and plays in the semi against Glasgow, i just don't rate him that highly and i think he benefited mainly from the tremendous job done by Dennis Buckley on the other side of the scrum.  Still playing all 22 games (albeit only for 60 seconds in the last round) is something to be applauded.

Props are allowed to do more than scrummage, maybe why Bealham got in

Surprised at Teo making the team. Rather shift Aki to 12 where he played a number of times and someone like Marshall at 13.

That team should be given a shot at New Zealand.... Pretty handy.

After thinking a bit about it, i would definitely have had Ray Lee-Lo for Ben Teo. Not enough love for the Cardiff Blues i feel, also think James Davies outplayed any 7 in the league. van der Flier is a great tackler and good carrier but nowhere to be seen at the breakdown.
Ultan Dillane is also a questionnable choice, only started 6 times for Connacht with 6 subs appearance.

I have to say I find that selection very odd indeed. I suppose if you take the Connacht team as the starting point its not too bad but for example I thought Pienaar was simply a class above anyone else as a game manager and won ulster a good few games. He would be the first name on my pro 12 dream team.

TJ wrote:I have to say I find that selection very odd indeed.  I suppose if you take the  Connacht team as the starting point its not too bad but for example I thought Pienaar was simply a class above anyone else as a game manager and won ulster a good few games.  He would be the first name on my pro 12 dream team.

Haven't seen as many Ulster games as I would have liked so I'm open to correction here but I believe Pienaar had a fairly quite season overall and has only recently come into top form.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Slightly surprised at Du Preez - he had a barnstorming first half of the season but has faded badly since the New Year, mainly due to our coaches non-rotation policy and him playinh 80 minutes week in week out!

Agreed. Not to do down the only Edinburgh representative, but he's been nowhere at times this season. When he's on song he's awesome and I'm looking forward to seeing him in a Scotland jersey but he'll need to be at the top of his game to oust that other Jock-Bok, Josh Strauss.

Golden wrote:

TJ wrote:I have to say I find that selection very odd indeed.  I suppose if you take the  Connacht team as the starting point its not too bad but for example I thought Pienaar was simply a class above anyone else as a game manager and won ulster a good few games.  He would be the first name on my pro 12 dream team.

Haven't seen as many Ulster games as I would have liked so I'm open to correction here but I believe Pienaar had a fairly quite season overall and has only recently come into top form.

I can only go on what I saw but in the games I saw he was outstanding in his game management - not just head and shoulders above anyone else but on another level altogether