He may have been captain of the losing side in Sunday’s Rugby World Cup final but Thierry Dusautoir has followed up his Man of the Match award from that game by being crowned IRB World Player of the Year.
Dusautoir carried the fight to the All Blacks in a hugely committed French effort, scoring his side’s only try in the second half as Les Bleus just failed to cause one of the greatest upsets of all time against the 1/10 favourites.
(At least, it was one of the greatest upsets since the French, who put the “hide” into Jekyll and Hyde, lost to little Tonga three weeks previously.)
Part of the Dusautoir legend was built on his performance against New Zealand in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final, when he made an astonishing 38 tackles, and while he made just 21 in Sunday’s final it was still way more than his nearest rival (Kieran Read with 15).
That stat, combined with his bulldozing try which set up a nervy last half hour for New Zealand at Eden Park, gave him Man of the Match honours and the Toulouse superstar was crowned IRB Player of the Year in Auckland this morning, perhaps surprisingly beating New Zealand trio Ma’a Nonu, Jerome Kaino and final bottler extraordinaire Piri Weepu to the top gong.
Also shortlisted were Australia’s David Pocock and Will Genia, for whom last week’s chastening semi-final defeat to the All Blacks was a bad way to go into an awards night.
The All Blacks – shock! horror! – were named IRB Team of the Year, World Cup winning shots-caller Graham Henry was handed the Coach of the Year award and Gareth Rees, Jonah Lomu, Agustin Pichot and Brian Lima were all inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame on a dissatisfyingly Irish-free awards night Down Under.
As an aside, Lomu’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame gives us all the reason we need to show you this video again.
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