London Irish
The Craic Player of the Season 2010/11
By Griff
June 30 2011
The Craic Player of Season is awarded to the player with the highest number of Man of the Match awards over the course of the season. It's an interesting measure since it draws from the same people to vote at the time the matches were played. There is no end-of-season hindsight it gives a measure of players' performance across the whole rugby year.
The interesting thing, I find, from this process is how little it tends to deviate from people's own end-of-season pick for PotS. It also throws-up some moments of comment along the way.
If you haven't voted in the Man of the Match polls then you've not participated (and the system is the worse for that). We try and get the MotM discussion up as soon after the game has played as we can, once we have our candidates we open the vote and it stays up for at least a week. Try and pop-in after every match to have your say about who we award this to. If you don't you can't really disagree with the choice.
That said, I doubt anyone will have a complaint about the recipient this time...
Opening the awards are the honourable mentions. The following players got one MotM award:
Declan Danaher, would probably have been in the running for the PotS award but for the rubbish luck of his second serious knee injury.
Jonathan Joseph and Marland Yarde, an impressive debut full-season for both these youngsters who are almost certainly the future of London Irish.
Paul Hodgson, incredibly only one award for Dodge, usually in-the-mix for the award.
James Buckland, made the hooker-shirt very-much his own - probably should have been closer to the crown if we're being honest (front-rows never get the attention they deserve).
Richard Thorpe, didn't get many opportunities to play but was pleased to be kept on, I expect a higher-ranking for Richard next season.
Chris Malone, the much maligned fly-half dug us out of many a sticky situation as well as picking-up the full-back duties when the cupboard was short of 15s.
Alex Corbisiero, will be happy with the impact he made on the England selectors I suspect.
Brian Blaney, didn't get many chances to shine so, especially as a front-rower, is a surprising inclusion.
Darren Allinson, did the impossible this season; kept Dodge on the bench. Practically unthinkable, Darren could easily have made it further up the list.
Steffon Armitage, now departed it wasn't until very late in the season before Stef was making a real impact.
Delon Armitage, keeping his brother company and probably wishing to forget much of last season Delon did still show us he is one of the most potent attacking forces in the game.
Topsy Ojo, incredibly the last game of the season at Leicester gave Topsy his first man-of-the-match award from us since the heart-breaking Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse at HQ! (26th Aproil 2008)
The players who managed two match awards were kept company with the ubiquitous None of the Above, quite surprising given how disappointed many have been with the season:
Tom Homer, came back to form and with more games would've had, I suspect, many more awards.
Chris Hala'ufia, has taken a lot of stick for his discipline but clearly he played well-enough to merit a great deal of applause from the LI faithful.
Ryan Lamb, the enigma was certainly a crowd pleaser some of the time, it was the frustration with his less mercurial side that kept him out the the running for PotS.
Two runners-up this year, with three match awards.
George Stowers was quite magnificent. played his heart-out and made many, many hard yards. Could quite easily have taken this award. Went about the business of taking out opposition apart very quietly without fuss.
Matt Garvey. A fantastic showing for the youngster, who filled the boots of many a more experienced player with aplomb. If he continues his development at this rate he'll be absolutely terrifying this season.
With four match awards, however, and taking The Craic's Player of the Season award for the second time - the first to do so, in fact - is the nicest man in rugby; Seilala Mapusua.
"Sheila" will be missed by supporters, players and management alike. He is the epitome of commitment and when he was on the field it was that much easier to "believe". As well a tearing-it-up on the park he was also the life-and-soul of London Irish off the pitch. He'll be quite an act to follow and it seems quite fitting that he achieved the first double PotS award in his final year for us.
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Quote:Jamo
Bit of a no brainer wasn't it?
oooh errr! now you've got me worried!!
...no brainer??? who should have got it then; really?
:¬)
To my mind a true great of the game with the added quality of a true sporting gentleman - if only the game, and many other sports, had more people like him.
But a little surprised that Dan Bowden didn't pick up a single MoTM!
I think Dan's problem was that when he played well so did the rest of the team and someone else caught the eye just a little bit more. I haven't checked but I'm sure he was in the nominations a fair few times.
