World Rugby Awards winners and losers: All Blacks and Lions snubbed, ‘justice for props’, Springboks domination and ‘farcical decision’
Springboks Ox Nche, England's Henry Pollock and South Africa's Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Following the announcement of the World Rugby Award Nominees, here are our winners and losers.
There are three headline awards up for grabs as World Rugby has already dished out the gongs in the women’s categories following the conclusion of the 2025 Rugby World Cup.
That means just the International Rugby Player Try of the Year, World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year, and Player of the Year awards are up for grabs, with the winners being revealed on Saturday, November 22.
So without further ado, here are our winners and losers.
Winners
Player of the Year Nominees
Just 18 players in the history of the game have been crowned the best player in the world since the award was introduced back in 2001.
And three of the four Nominees in 2025 will be hoping to become the 19th as Ox Nche, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, and Malcom Marx aim to clinch the title for the first time.
Nche makes history simply by being nominated, more on that later, while Marx will be hoping that it’s second time’s a charm after being nominated back in 2018.
As for Bielle-Biarrey, he bids to become just the fourth Frenchman to claim the award, following in the footsteps of his head coach Fabien Galthie, legendary flanker Thierry Dusautoir and his captain Antoine Dupont.
The fourth and final nominee is last year’s winner, Pieter-Steph du Toit, who became the first-ever South African to win the award more than once.
Breakthrough Player of the Year Nominees
It’s hard to see where the World Rugby Awards panel – Jacques Burger, Fiona Coghlan, Victor Matfield, Drew Mitchell, Ugo Monye, Sergio Parisse, Kieran Read and Blaine Scully – went wrong here.
All Blacks lock Fabian Holland, Springboks back Ethan Hooker, England flanker Henry Pollock and Wallabies centre Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii all deserve their inclusion on the list.
Holland has quickly become a regular feature in Scott Robertson’s pack this year after making his debut against France in July. The All Blacks have been screaming out for a top-quality second-rower since the retirements of Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, and the big Dutchman looks to be fitting the bill perfectly.
Since the introduction of this award in 2015, New Zealand have dominated the winners’ list with an All Blacks claiming the gong on five occasions – Nehe Milner-Skudder (2015), Rieko Ioane (2016), Will Jordan (2021), Mark Tele’a (2023) and Wallace Sititi (2024). Will Holland become the sixth? It would not be an absurd decision.
However, the second-rower does have stiff competition for the award, with Hooker enjoying a stunning start to his international career in 2025. The Sharks back marked his debut off the bench against Georgia in July but really made his mark with a stunning first start against the All Blacks in Wellington, where he played a pivotal role in New Zealand’s biggest defeat on home soil. He quickly became a staple in the matchday 23, helping South Africa defend their Rugby Championship title.
Meanwhile, rugby league convert Suaalii made his Test debut last November but still qualifies for the award, much like Ioane did back in 2017. His first professional union match came in Wallabies colours, and the former Sydney Roosters star quickly caught the eye with his brilliance under the high ball, blistering pace and offloading ability. 2025 hasn’t been a rollercoaster year for the Aussies, but Suaalii has been a clear standout and finished his debut Rugby Championship campaign as the joint-top scorer with four (also Marx).
What a year for Henry Pollock!
The final Breakthrough Player of the Year Nominee. Pollock has enjoyed the most glorious of rises in 2025. He started the year with a handful of Premiership games and as a U20s international. By July, he was a senior international and a British and Irish Lion.
His bleached hair, try celebrations, and boisterous attitude will irk many, but there is no doubt that England have a superstar in the making on their hands; that is, if he isn’t one already.
He may have less than 160 minutes of Test rugby under his belt, but as far as ‘breakthroughs’ go, few are better.
Front Row Union
The name Retshegofaditswe Nché will forever be etched into the World Rugby history books as the Springboks loosehead enters uncharted waters, becoming the first-ever prop to be nominated for the Men’s World Rugby Player of the Year Award.
The Front Row Union will collectively celebrate that one of their own is finally getting recognised for the dark arts, even if he doesn’t collect the honour.
Keith Wood, the inaugural winner, remains the sole front-rower to clinch the gong, with Steve Thompson, Dane Coles, Marx, and Joe Taufete’e nominated in the years that followed. However, props have repeatedly been overlooked, including Nche last year, but finally, finally, there is justice for props.
Pieter-Steph du Toit
There will be arguments that Du Toit hasn’t been at the same level as he was last year or in 2019, when he won the award previously.
However, he has repeatedly produced world-class performances for the Springboks this year. If he hasn’t been the best Bok on the park this year in his eight appearances, then he has been the second best. A consistent 7/10 for his standards, which is an 8 or 9 for most.
At 33, Du Toit continues to be one of the best players in the world despite a plethora of injury setbacks, many of which threatened his career. Last year, he became the first Springbok to win the World Rugby Player of the Year twice and now has a shot at becoming just the third player to ever win the gong on three occasions – following in the footsteps of Richie McCaw and Dan Carter.
Springboks
Over the years, the All Blacks have dominated the World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year Award and nominations, but the back-to-back World Cup-winning Springboks are making up the ground.
With three of the four nominees this year coming from South Africa, the Boks have closed the nominations gap to six with the All Blacks on 31.
New Zealand are comfortably ahead on the winners’ list with 11 to the Boks’ four, but there is a good chance that gap could be made smaller too.
All this is an indication of just how the tide has turned in recent years, with South Africa producing 75% of the nominees in back-to-back years.
QUIZ: Can you name every Men’s World Rugby Player of the Year winner?
Losers
Men’s head coaches
For those wondering, no, World Rugby did not forget to name the shortlist for the Coach of the Year; it has already been awarded, with World Cup-winning England boss John Mitchell taking the gong earlier this year.
World Rugby bigwigs Brett Robinson (Chair), Alan Gilpin (Chief Executive) and Phil Davies (World Rugby Director of Rugby) were the panel that decided who the winner was and issued it to the former All Blacks head coach after the competition.
England headed into their home tournament as favourites to lift the title, and while Mitchell’s efforts certainly deserve to be recognised, winning the World Cup did not result in Jacques Nienaber taking home the award in 2023.
Last year, France’s Jerome Daret controversially beat Rassie Erasmus to the award, and the 2025 decision is bound to cause some controversy too.
Now this isn’t to say that Mitchell isn’t a worthy winner, but the award was issued in September with the Rugby Championship still underway and the entire November window still to come. There is also an argument to be made whether the coach award should be split into men’s, women’s and sevens awards, like the others.
Frankly, it feels like a rash decision on World Rugby’s part and paints a picture that the winner was always going to be the head coach who won the Women’s World Cup, which is farcical.
It leaves one wondering was Canada’s Kévin Rouet even considered after leading his crowdfunded charges to the final? Or was Swys de Bruin in the running after helping the Women Boks reach their first-ever World Cup play-off?
How about Felipe Contepomi, who has overseen victories over the British and Irish Lions, All Blacks, Wallabies and Scotland with Argentina. In fact, the Los Pumas legend could add England to that list before the year is done. All this with a squad where the vast majority of the players ply their trade abroad, significantly adding to their travel.
How about Zimbabwe’s Pieter Benade, who guided his side to Rugby World Cup qualification for the first time since 1991? Before Erasmus led the Boks to Rugby Championship glory, the Coach of the Year had been decided too.
Tadhg Beirne
Perhaps the biggest snub for the World Rugby Player of the Year Nominee. Tadhg Beirne has been in stunning form at the highest level this year, only emphasised by the Irishman winning the Player of the Series after three mammoth performances for the British and Irish Lions, who beat the Wallabies 2-1.
Did his red card against the All Blacks count against him? It certainly seems so.
Ardie Savea and the All Blacks
For just the sixth time since the awards were introduced and the second year in a row, not a single All Black has been nominated for the Player of the Year award (2001, 2004, 2021, 2022, 2024).
It’s been a turbulent year for Robertson’s charges, but despite the adversity, 2023 winner Ardie Savea has been a shining light and remains one of the best of the best in World Rugby.
Finn Russell
“A guy like Tadhg Beirne is just unbelievable. I’m on that committee that selects the player of the year, and he’s definitely right up there, probably with Finn Russell, at this stage. They are probably the two guys standing out the most,” Victor Matfield said on the Rivals podcast last month.
Both players have since been cut from the shortlist. The ‘Messi of rugby’, Russell, would have fancied his chances after a standout Six Nations campaign with Scotland as well as his performances during the British and Irish Lions tour.
But that was not enough for Matfield and his fellow panellists, who were perhaps influenced by Scotland’s losses this November to New Zealand and Argentina.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Injury curtailed Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s bid to clinch the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year award last year. He was nominated for the award but beaten to the punch by All Black Wallace Sititi.
That meant that this year, he was ineligible for the gong, but many tipped him to be in the running for the top award. Feinberg-Mngomezulu is yet to lose a Test match that he has started and was pivotal in many of the Springboks’ successes this year, producing a jaw-dropping showing in Durban, breaking the record for the most points scored in a single Test.
His performance against France furthered his push, but ultimately, Erasmus’ rotation policy possibly cost him dearly.
Argentina
As mentioned above, Argentina have claimed massive scalps this year, but the only nomination that the South Americans have to show for it is Santiago Cordero’s nomination for try of the year.
Forwards Marcos Kremer and Pablo Matera surely did enough to earn consideration for the Player of the Year Award, but the last Los Pumas to be nominated for the award remain Contepomi and Juan Martín Hernández in 2007.
World Rugby
While the panels largely managed to whittle down the nominees without too much controversy, there will always be backlash. However, the once glamorous awards evening has been relegated to social media posts this year.
The statement unveiling the nominees simply stated that the winners will be announced on Saturday, November 22, the final Saturday of the official World Rugby international window.
Organising an awards evening with teams from across the globe is certainly a tall task but it has been achieved by hosting the event in Monaco in recent years… perhaps there was no invite this year.
Still, announcing the winners on a day when four top-flight internationals are taking place does seem bizarre. Perhaps we will see the winners receiving their awards after the match, but it still feels like an afterthought for what is supposed to be an illustrious award.
