World Rugby Awards: Winners and losers as Springboks rewarded despite ‘shocking snub’ plus the ‘grossly underrepresented’

Following the announcement of the 2024 World Rugby Awards nominations, we pick out our winners and losers.

The prestigious World Rugby Awards evening will take place on Sunday, November 24 in Monaco, with the best and brightest talents in the international game in attendance.

And the esteemed panels have released the nominations for the highly-sought after awards that celebrate the best of the best in international rugby.

It’s worth remembering that the awards ONLY take into account international rugby exploits and not that of club rugby.

So without further ado, here are our winners and losers.

Winners

All nominees

Professional athletes are obviously highly competitive, they have to be, and while all 28 nominees that have been announced already will be holding their breath as they wait for their names to be read out, it is a huge honour to just make the shortlist.

That sounds rather cliche and straight out of the professional athlete’s ‘Dummies Guide to Media Training’ but it is true as essentially making the shortlist means that you are deemed to be one of the three or four best players in your category over the year.

Athletes also hold the opinion of their peers in high regard and the panels put together for these awards contain some of the greatest players to ever grace a rugby pitch, for example, the Men’s XV Player of the Year shortlist was drawn up by Jacques Burger, Fiona Coghlan, Thierry Dusautoir, Victor Matfield, Drew Mitchell, Ugo Monye, Kieran Read, Melodie Robinson and Blaine Scully.

Pieter-Steph du Toit

Springboks back-rower Pieter-Steph du Toit can make history on the Awards evening as he eyes up the World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year Award and if he wins the top gong, he will become the first South African to claim the prize more than once.

He has stiff competition from his teammates Cheslin Kolbe and Eben Etzebeth as well as Ireland’s Caelan Doris but the tireless flanker would be hugely deserving of the award after another sensational campaign.

Du Toit is not the first Springbok to be nominated for the award on more than one occasion with Etzebeth now cracking the shortlist for a third time with Kolbe also nominated in 2019. Matfield, Fourie du Preez and Bryan Habana all earned two nominations as well.

Antoine Dupont

Another man chasing history as Antoine Dupont could become the first ever men’s player to win both the XVs and 7s Player of the Year awards.

The brilliant French scrum-half was crowned the best player in the world in 2021 and was nominated for the same gong the following two years, falling short to Josh van der Flier and Ardie Savea, but having played just two Test matches in 2024, he was never going to be in the running.

However, his exploits with the France 7s team means that he could still walk away from Monaco with a prize as he has been shortlisted alongside fellow countryman Aaron Grandidier Nkanang and Irishman Terry Kennedy for the World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year.

Before Dupont made the switch to 7s, France had not won a single tournament in 19 years and he quickly made a telling impact to bring that drought to an end and steered the side to an Olympic Gold medal. It’s hard to argue against his nomination even if he didn’t play the entire season.

Selection panels

The World Rugby Awards generally stir debate and when the winners are announced, 2024 will be no different but one has to say this year it feels as if for the most part the nominations are spot on with a handful of exceptions – more on that later.

 

Breakout stars

Tough pickings between Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Jamie Osborne and Wallace Sititi as the quartet would be deserving winners of the Men’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year Award.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu could well have been the runaway winner had he not been ruled out for the final two rounds of the Rugby Championship and the November internationals but that is hardly a sleight on the remaining nominees.

Feyi-Waboso has quickly made himself nigh-on irreplaceable on the wing in Steve Borthwick’s starting XV while Sititi has been a revelation in New Zealand’s loose trio whether starring at blindside flanker or at number eight. The All Black has not only been a breakout star this year but arguably one the most consistent and top performers in the team, which is saying something as the youngest member of the squad!

As for Osborne, he was tasked with the challenge of filling Hugo Keenan’s void at full-back for Ireland against the world champions in July and did so marvellously. It’s no easy feat to break into Andy Farrell’s squad and Osborne was given a rare opportunity to do just that and took it with both hands.

Eben Etzebeth

After narrowly missing out last year to Savea, perhaps 2024 is the year that the most capped Springbok of all-time is finally awarded the title of the best men’s player on the planet. Etzebeth has been outstanding for Rassie Erasmus’ side this year and would be a worthy winner but as mentioned above, he has stiff competition.

He does, however, get the honour of being South Africa’s most nominated player for the award following his inclusions in 2013 and 2023 but that could also mean that he becomes the Bok with the most nominations and no win, too.

Springboks

For just third time since the award was introduced in 2001, one nation has had three nominees for the men’s World Rugby Player of the Year Award with Kolbe, Etzebeth and Du Toit all shortlisted for the top gong.

It’s just reward for the Springboks who drew their series with Ireland before winning their first-ever full Rugby Championship title, beating the All Blacks and Wallabies twice in the process. They have also swept Scotland and England aside and look on track to go unbeaten in November for the first time in 11 years.

Before the Boks claimed three nominees this year, only New Zealand had three players up for the award, doing so in 2005 and 2011. Dan Carter took home the award beating out teammates Tana Umaga and Richie McCaw in 2005 with Habana and Matfield also missing out while Dusautoir claimed the title ahead of Jerome Kaino, Piri Weepu and Ma’a Nonu in 2011 despite the All Blacks winning the World Cup.

 

Losers

Ox Nche and the front row union

In the 24 years that the awards have been running only once has a front-rower claimed the World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year Award and it was the very first one in 2001 when Ireland legend Keith Wood claimed the title. Since then, only four other hookers have been nominated and shockingly not once has a prop even made the shortlist.

Tadhg Furlong has been overlooked several times over the years as have several of his front-row union members and criminally so, but 2024 has produced the most outrageous snub in the form of Springboks loosehead Ox Nche.

The cake-loving front-rower is loved by fans not only for his social exploits but his ability on the park and after playing a crucial role in South Africa’s Rugby World Cup title defence last year, his performances went into another stratosphere in 2024. A quick look at World Rugby’s post on social media announcing the shortlist and fans across the globe had one question ‘Where’s Ox Nche?’ and the feeling was mutual at Planet Rugby HQ.

Perhaps it is just sticking to theme or rugby values that the front-rowers, and props in particular, are the most undervalued and overlooked players in the game. #Justice4props

 

Full list of past winners and nominees for the World Rugby Player of the Year

Tier 2 Nations grossly underrepresented

Akaki Tabutsadze is the ONLY player from a ‘Tier Two’ nation that is up for an award across the eight categories which World Rugby have revealed the nominees from both the men’s and women’s XV and 7s game. The Georgian flyer is one of four players up for the Men’s XVs Try of the Year for his stunning effort against the Wallabies in July.

As stated above, the panels for the most part got the nominations spot on but one cannot help but notice the glaringly lack of representation for the Tier Two nations for both the men’s and women’s awards. This despite the men’s Fijian team reaching the Olympic final.

It’s nothing new or fresh but it is a sad reality. Perhaps adding more categories in the future could be a way of celebrating these unsung heroes going forward.

Ardie Savea

After a blockbuster 2023, Savea was not quite at the same level in 2024 despite churning out world-class performances in the black jersey for New Zealand. This means that he will relinquish his title as the best player of the year as he has not been nominated for the award this time around.

Marcos Moneta

This is no sleight on Dupont, Grandidier Nkanag or Kennedy but Marcos Moneta’s omission from the shortlist for the Men’s Player of the Year is simply heinous. The Argentine was consistently one of the best players on the sevens circuit throughout the year and helped his team reach the Olympic semi-finals.

Aoife Wafer

While the men’s Breakthrough Player of the Year nominees were accepted without much argument, the same cannot be said for the women’s with fans quickly responding with comments along the lines of “Aoife Wafer absolutely robbed”.

Wafer was simply sensational for Ireland this year in WXV1 with the 21-year-old notably scoring a brace against the Black Ferns in a famous Irish victory.

However, Wafer was unfortunately ineligible for the gong after making her Test debut during the 2022 Six Nations but if there was ever a time to make an exception it was here particularly considering the fact that she played just 11 minutes on debut before returning to earn her next appearance this year.