Dan Carter, World Rugby Player of the Year 2015
Gregor Paul selects his World XV for 2015 which features 6 All Blacks, 3 Australians and Argentinians, and 1 Fijian, Georgian and Scotsman — and nobody from South Africa, England, Ireland, Wales or France.
15 Ben Smith (New Zealand):
Ben from all accounts had an outrageously good season. He captained the Highlanders to the most unlikely Super Rugby title and then inspired the All Blacks to a World Cup victory. His aerial skills and footwork are unbelievable.
14 Adam Ashley-Cooper(Australia):
Ashley-Cooper is the Wallaby version of Smith. He’s a superb all-round footballer who continually does the right thing. Has pace, footwork, awareness and the ability to covert half-chances. Was deadly at the World Cup.
13 Mark Bennett (Scotland):
A rugged, tough ball runner with innate timing. Picked off the intercept try in the World Cup quarter-final that should have sunk Australia and contributed some big tackling and deft passing.
12 Ma’a Nonu (New Zealand):
Ended his All Black career in the best possible way. Most direct and destructive midfielder world rugby has known. And yet he’s more than bash and dash – throws a cracking long pass, has soft hands and a clever short kicking game.
11 Juan Imhoff (Argentina):
He found his best form at the World Cup and it was impressive. He’s got natural predatory instincts and the pace and power to make good on them. Scored a try against Ireland that was hugely under-appreciated – his timing, decision making and skill were all first class.
10 Dan Carter(New Zealand):
The old class returned once he had the confidence in his body. Vintage Carter. No one else could have snapped those critical goals, or kicked as accurately under pressure as he did. Ten years after he beat the Lions with his running game, he won a World Cup with his kicking game.
9 Aaron Smith (New Zealand):
Was electric for much of Super Rugby and while his passing and running were the headline acts, his kicking game developed into a world-class component of his armoury. Does anyone in the game have a better step?
8 Mamuka Gorgodze (Georgia):
This dude played only 45 minutes against the All Blacks at the World Cup and he was the official man of the match. He’s huge, agile, smashes people off the ball and, despite being the size of a house, motors around and keeps up with the ball.
7 Richie McCaw (New Zealand):
The old master played as well as ever and while some of his Aussie backrow mates won rave reviews, neither David Pocock nor Michael Hooper offered the same range of skills and overall influence as McCaw. He cleaned them both up in the World Cup final.
6 David Pocock (Australia):
He was shown up in the World Cup final for having only the one trick, but it is a magnificent skill he has. No one is as effective at the breakdown as Pocock and his ability to win as much ball as he did had a major impact on the World Cup.
5 Leone Nakarawa (Fiji):
The big Fijian showed an incredible ability to offload and yet not shirk his core roles. He won lineout ball, tackled like a loose forward and carried the ball like an outside back. Was named as the Pacific Island Players’ Association Player of the Year.
4 Sam Whitelock(New Zealand):
The more he played, the better he got. Was a towering force at the lineout and took some critical steals in the World Cup semifinal win over South Africa. What impressed most about him, though, was his tackle count. Whitelock racks up the same sort of numbers as the best loose forwards and he’s also become a world-class ball carrier.
3 Ramiro Herrera (Argentina):
Anchored an impressive Pumas scrum and also thumped about. A huge man but he wasn’t in any way lumbering. Gave the Argentines an air of intimidation.
2 Agustin Creevy (Argentina):
The Pumas captain is a late convert to the hooking role and there is still much of the loose forward about him. He gave Argentina much of their go-forward and added a sparkle to their play with his clever offloads. Threw well at the lineout and got his body into great positions over the tackled ball.
1 Scott Sio (Australia):
A strong, agile, mobile prop with the technical ability and skills to hold his own in the set piece and yet play a meaningful role elsewhere. The Wallabies haven’t had a player likes this for decades.
nzherald
Well done Morris. A very good innings. Just what SA needed to restore respectability and confidence.
270 @ MacroPolo:It is poor fielding, but for the batsman thats been given another life, thats pretty lucky!
Disappointing game this imo… Trying to save same the match on the 2nd day? 0-1 in the series is that we have come to?
I get that we had little chance of winning the game… But the little chance we had we diminished all by ourselves.
Just For Kicks wrote:
Just tough to celebrate our batting when all we had was luck… Where would we be if amla and ab got out cheaply?
Happy for temba though.
Bavuuuuuuuuma!!!!! Good stuff, young man. Wow, another, who’s batting has saved this match.
275 @ MacroPolo:Interesting comment. I see it differently. They weren’t out, and they did go on to not only spend time in the middle, get their confidence back, but also to go on and make very good scores.
Is Lara’s 501 not so great because he was dropped on 18?
Very good fight back by SA on a flat track. Certainly puts their bowling into some perspective, but more importantly has given the batsmen time at the crease. They are going to need it on the Jo’burg and Pretoria pitches where they will not he it so easy. Very timely, indeed.
Well I never!!!
http://ewn.co.za/2016/01/05/Former-All-Blacks-coach-Mitchell-to-lead-US-Eagles
1270 runs for 13 wickets over 4 days….the only winner was Newlands Cricket Ground and the vendors who will have patrons for the full 5 days for a change, courtesy of the groundsman.
Nice to see batsmen getting milestones and batting themselves into form and whatever, but a contest?
Nope, no contest between bat and ball at all.
I suppose most Protea fans will be happy that we didn’t lose again, that is a plus point, but I doubt the Poms will be to bothered about that, they are still leading the series and don’t have any pressure of having to play for a win.
@ nortie: I read this game completely differently to you Nortie. The wicket is what it is. All cricket wickets are different. If you’ve been following Test match cricket for a while you’ll know this. This wicket was prepared to last five days. As it should be. The fact that it didn’t break up from day three and take turn and/or reverse swing is simply nature taking it course. Its part of the game and what makes this traditional form of the game great. However, we’ve seen some unbelievable cricket over the four days so far, and the fact that we’re not going to get a ‘win’ result is not a train-smash. If this is a problem for some, then best they don’t try to understand the game and watch the shorter forms where one side wins are 99% guaranteed. I reckon almost a hundred thousand watched this game live and hundreds of millions watched it on-line. That pretty much says it all.
@ Just For Kicks: some magnificent attritional batting by the Proteas. Most especially our captain, who was under the most intense pressure imaginable. Scoring a double century under those circumstances is extraordinary. Super-human in fact. Arguably a bigger feat than Stokes’ double in my opinion.
nortie wrote:
Nothing to brag about, some kids do 1009 on their own 🙂
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35230388
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35233298
I won’t call it magnificent batting as the pitch was like a featherbed and England dropped no less than 10 catches.
281 @ Tassies:
The indians were critisized for preparing dust bowls… We should be equally reprimanded for preparing a road to bat on.
@ Just For Kicks:
Fair comment, lara still had to score 400+.
Im not taking away from amla. A double century is always a mean feat, but for the commentators to go on like it was a brilliant patient innings is beyond me, its a false reflection, even the innings from ab was a bit dodge.
Good on faf and temba too, but our batsmen still has a lot of work to do if we even want to draw this series.
@ Tassies:
Good post Tassies. This match is definitely one for the purists. Sure it’s not going to end in a result – unless England collapse in spectacular fashion today.
You get these sort of matches every so often. People don’t seem to realise the pressure the Proteas had going into this match. These days, in excess of 80% of test matches played end in a result. That can be attributed to more matches of the shortened form and because of the that the run scoring tempo has increased.
A lot has been said above about all the dropped catches.
A cricketing phrase “catches win matches” couldn’t be more true then.
Could’ve should’ve didn’t!
282 @ Tassies:
Agree with you Tassies. Great batting by our captain and like I also said in previous posts better than Stokes under pressure to do that is magnificent.
Some have to remember we also dropped many catches. Thats test cricket you just never know and why
I love this format of the game the most. One never knows how it will turn out in the end.
So enjoyed tiny Bavuma (sp) he was terrific. Dont care what the pitch was like we both had to bat and bowl on it. Both sides dropped catches. So no differrence. And if we save this test will be proud of the boys after being so dissappointed at the start of it and in Durban. They came out fighting here and that is how we Saffas are used to seeing the fighting spirit and long may it live.
288 @ IAAS:
For sure but we both dropped catches. So equal there. Dont care if ours was poor fielding some of theirs was as well. Its how it goes.
Now do hope we save this test done so well to catch up to their score now not to lose it with really bad bowling. But doubt England will win this one. One thing for sure their confidence if anything has dropped after this test thinking their big score of over 600 was unbeatable just for us to come straight back at them with some of our own great batting.
Amla’s pressure was self inflicted due to a poor 2015, not a captain’s knock under pressure to save his team. That is a Steve Waugh standing up to Curtly and Walsh on a pitch that every ball could kill the batsman, or Smith facing a decent Aussie attack with a broken hand.
If he had done that in India against huge odds on a difficult pitch, then it could be considered his greatest innings. The runs he scored in England while fasting far surpasses this innings on a pitch where pretty much every batsman found it easy going.
This track could have no winner simply because it was prepared for only the batsmen. If the bowlers (from both sides) didn’t have an equal chance of taking 20 wickets, how can it be considered a test?
When a batsman (Stokes) is on record of saying “I just pretty much tried to hit every ball for a 6” then surely it says a lot about how easy the batting conditions were.
Are the Proteas not still currently ranked nr 1 in test cricket?
Then I find it strange that a tepid draw on a, as Robzim pointed out, a featherbed, could draw such a positive reaction.
@ Puma:
Sure this test will fizzle out to a draw. Unless we have them 4 or 5 down by lunch. Been an enthralling 4 days so far.
Will definitely try and take in a day or 2 here at the Wanderers.
@ nortie:
You’re funny.
“Amla’s pressure was self inflicted due to a poor 2015, not a captain’s knock under pressure to save his team”
If Amla’s 201 captain’s innings did not save the Proteas, then kindly tell me who did.
Oh and Happy New Year.
291 @ nortie:
Bavuma had a better innings in my opinion. As he was not only under pressure, but there were people actually willing him to fail, even people on this site.
Amla’s captaincy is not good enough, we started waving the white flag pretty much in the second morning with seriously questionable bowling changes and fielding positions.
@ IAAS:
I think the saddest thing is even on a “featherbed” flat pitch theoretically we should never even lose this test and never should have yet we had to depend on catches that win/lose matches.
@ IAAS:
Happy new year to you too.
Nope, I don’t think his knock saved the test because the other batsmen also found it easy enough to put 80’s and 100’s on the board. I doubt Eng would have taken 20 wickets to win the test simply because the pitch is way to batsman friendly.
Merely my opinion of course, I don’t consider a test where the playing field isn’t level for both batting and bowling as one for the records.
Likewise the tests in India were also not for the purists because it favored the bowling and didn’t give the batsmen an equal chance.
I’m not saying Amla doesn’t deserve plaudits, any test 200 does, I’m saying it, IMO, shouldn’t be considered anywhere near his best innings because he has batted better under worse conditions.
@ MacroPolo: @ 294
So we have seen some “Penny Sparrow’s” on this site. Disgusting really. Discussing the merits of a player is one thing. Willing someone to fail is not on. In whatever sport.
@ MacroPolo: @ 295
The result of this test still has to be decided. 90% likelihood of a draw. I think we all agree there.
Unless, as I said earlier, we have them 4 or 5 down by lunch. Stranger things have happened in cricket.
@ MacroPolo:
You have 2 scores of 200 plus, 1 of 150, 1 of a 100 and 5 more of 50 plus. Doesn’t look like it was too difficult to get runs if you are a half decent batsman, and I’m guessing that if you represent your country you are.
It’s nice seeing milestones and big totals, but I’m not convinced that it can be considered a great test. Not if there isn’t a chance of one side actually managing to get a win and making a game of it.
@ IAAS:
I think we would have to have them all out at lunch or amla and co would just bat out the next two sessions to save the match.
@ nortie:
Let’s agree to disagree. We needed someone to score massive runs to save this test. And it just happened to be Amla.
Don’t you think AB and Faf must be kicking themselves now on missing out on another test ton on a featherbed after both set solid foundations in the first place?
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