World Rugby Awards: Winners and losers as Rassie Erasmus and ‘more fitting’ recipients are ‘robbed’ while ‘thoroughly deserving’ stars take top gongs
World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit and an insert of Springboks coach Rassie-Erasmus.
Following the World Rugby Awards evening which saw Pieter-Steph du Toit and Ellie Kildunne take home the top gongs, we pick out our winners and losers.
The Awards evening always produces debate from the selection of the Players of the Year to the Dream Teams and 2024 is no different with fans weighing in on the selections.
We dive deep into the award winners and losers.
Winners
Pieter-Steph du Toit
Frankly, all four Men’s 15s World Rugby Player of the Year nominees would have been thoroughly deserving of being crowned the best men’s player in the world but it fittingly goes to Pieter-Steph du Toit.
The forward has been a driving force in the Springboks‘ success this year, working tirelessly on both sides of the ball and impressing in Tony Brown’s new attacking structures. He was superb during the series against Ireland and carried that form into the Rugby Championship even when required to move into the second-row during the team’s lock crisis.
The tenacious flanker has also become a real leader in the set-up and skippered the team against Wales and did so several times in the latter stages of Test matches. He is now the first Springboks player to ever win the World Rugby Player of the Year Award on more than one occasion following the All Blacks Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Beauden Barrett as the only other multiple winners.
Du Toit will go down as an all-time great not just of the Springboks Green and Gold but in international rugby history too.
Ellie Kildunne
While the candidates for the Men’s 15s World Rugby Player of the Year was a close run thing, the Women’s was not as Ellie Kildunne was quite clearly the frontrunner and it was almost a foregone conclusion that she would be named the best women’s player in the world.
She scored a mind-boggling nine tries as England rampaged to another Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam before going on to shine for Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Paris. She returned in red-hot form for the Red Roses in the WXV 1 as England charged to another title with the sensational full-back scoring another four times. Her try-scoring record in 2024 reads 14 in 10 Tests – truly remarkable. What a player.
Jérôme Daret
The Awards usually deliver a surprise or two and 2024 is no different with France Sevens boss Jérôme Daret claiming the World Rugby Coach of the Year.
Few would have given France much of a hope of winning Olympic Gold in Sevens but Daret oversaw the team’s most successful period in the sport, winning only their second-ever series title in Los Angeles in March before going on to stunningly clinch the HSBC SVNS Championship in Madrid.
However, Daret’s crowning moment came on home soil as France defeated Argentina to claim a Gold Medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Daret becomes the first-ever sevens coach to win the award thanks to his efforts but he is rather fortunate to take the gong ahead of several standout candidates – more on that later.
Wallace Sititi
It was very much a two-horse race for the Men’s Breakthrough 15s Player of the Year with Springboks’ rising star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and All Blacks powerhouse Wallace Sititi being the leading candidates ahead of Ireland’s Jamie Osborne and England’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s injury early on in the Rugby Championship hampered his chances and Sititi took the lead as he cemented his place in the All Blacks starting XV and was unreal from the second Test against the Boks right through to his final outing against Italy.
He follows in the footsteps of Nehe Milner-Skudder, Mark Tele’a, Rieko Ioane and Will Jordan in winning the award and certainly has a very bright and long international career ahead of him, with the legendary Carter even stating that ‘he’s definitely a future All Blacks captain.’
Dream Teams
While many players will be disappointed that they missed on the individual awards, the Dream Teams provided a nod to their excellence in 2024.
Essentially what their inclusion in their respective teams means is that a panel of some of the greatest players to ever grace a rugby pitch believe that they were the best in their position in 2024.
It’s a huge honour and should be seen as such, particularly for those who play the positions that regularly get overlooked and are underappreciated when it comes to individual honours ala the props.
Damian McKenzie
Since we are on the topic of the Dream Teams, Damian McKenzie’s inclusion sticks out like a sore thumb. The All Blacks have endured a rocky 2024 and for most of it, McKenzie was the starting fly-half playing New Zealand’s opening eight Test matches of the year.
He has been laser accurate off the tee but hardly all inspiring and the best men’s fly-half on the planet. His inclusion feels more like one where the panel couldn’t make a strong enough case for someone else and just went for the guy that played the most for one of the top four teams.
This isn’t to say that McKenzie was poor for the All Blacks – he was solid – but was certainly not the best fly-half in the world in 2024 with fans and pundits calling for him to be dropped for large chunks of the year and replaced by Barrett.
The Springboks
Last year many Springboks fans felt as though World Rugby was out to get them when Eben Etzebeth missed out on the Player of the Year award and Jacques Nienaber was snubbed for Coach of the Year. Ex-Boks coach Nick Mallett even decided to resign from his position on the panel to select the Coach of the Year.
While some may still feel filthy that Rassie Erasmus was snubbed again this year, the Springboks were certainly well represented with three nominees for the Player of the Year Award including the winner and a rising star up for the Breakthrough Player of the Year gong. Then there is the fact that seven Springboks made the Dream Team of the Year and those who didn’t were beaten to a spot in the team by players who on the whole deserved it more.
Springboks great resigns from World Rugby Awards panel after coach snub
Antoine Dupont
The first player to ever win the men’s 15s and 7s player of the year. Antoine Dupont took the gamble of missing France’s Six Nations to chase Olympic Gold on home soil and the decision paid off as he helped Les Bleus clinch not only the top prize at the Olympics but also the world series.
A superstar of a player, Dupont creates a unique bit of history as he claims the personal gong but one has to question where he was fully deserving of the award and whether it was a popularity vote.
An icon of the game and an undisputed world-class player, Dupont shone in the sevens format of the game but was he really the best men’s 7s player in 2024 considering that he only played two SVNS tournaments – the first rather sparingly – and the Olympics?
Losers
Rassie Erasmus
Mallet was fuming that Nienaber was overlooked last year and there is reason for him to be so again in 2024 after Erasmus was overlooked for the award that he won in 2019.
Milton Haig, Mario Ledesma, Melodie Robinson and Danielle Waterman were the panellists that decided that France sevens coach Daret’s exploits outweighed a historic year for the Springboks.
Not only have South Africa shifted their style of play but under Erasmus this year they have used 50 players and still managed to get results. They won their first full Rugby Championship tournament since Argentina were included – winning a truncated version in 2019 – and won 11 of their 13 matches with their two defeats coming by just one point.
For the first time since 2013, South Africa also went unbeaten in November while they claimed a historic victory in Brisbane and beat their old foe in back-to-back Test matches in South Africa.
It was also quite telling that this was the first year that Erasmus was eligible for the award – after holding the title of director of rugby over the last four years – and the first time that World Rugby did not reveal the nominees for the gong, instead they just announced the winner at the event.
The Olympics was always going to be a factor this year but frankly, Erasmus has been robbed here along with two other standout candidates that would have been more fitting winners.
Snubbed coaches
One of those two candidates is England Women’s head coach John Mitchell who went unbeaten in 2024 as the Red Roses continued their dominance of the women’s game. There is always a target on your back when you are on the top but Mitchell’s England dealt with the pressure magnificently and delivered on their potential with no slip-up as they raced to yet another Six Nations Grand Slam and a WXV1 title. His record in 2024 reads 10 Tests, 10 wins. Sure that’s what was expected for the Red Roses in 2024 but they faced fierce opposition along the way and duly dealt with that as they set the standard for women’s rugby.
Meanwhile, in his first year in charge of Los Pumas legendary fly-half turned head coach Felipe Contepomi inspired Argentina through their best-ever Rugby Championship campaign. Los Pumas face challenges that other tier one nations simply don’t with limited access to their best players with almost no local-based players pulling on the blue and white hooped jersey. Still, Contepomi turned them into a real force in 2024 knocking over Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for the first time in a single Rugby Championship while they also pushed Ireland and France right to the limit this November. The Pumas are renowned for their ill-discipline but under Contepomi they were far cleaner throughout the Rugby Championship and moved up two rankings positions in the process.
Eben Etzebeth
The third time was not the charm for the most-capped Springboks player of all-time as Etzebeth missed out on the Men’s 15 World Rugby Player of the Year Award in 2024 as he did in 2013 and 2023. It probably won’t faze him too much but after claiming back-to-back Rugby World Cups and British and Irish Lions Series, this remains the one gong he has yet to get his hands on.
Simply put, his teammate Du Toit was more deserving this time around.
Snubbed fly-halves
If McKenzie is a winner then the likes of Los Pumas star Tomas Albornoz, England’s Marcus Smith, France’s Thomas Ramos, and perhaps even his All Blacks teammate Barrett have to be losers.
As mentioned above it was a startling decision to include the All Blacks fly-half in the Men’s 15s Dream Team and surely had to be a decision of number of appearances in the jersey because the aforementioned stars would have all got the nod instead of McKenzie if Planet Rugby were making the selections.
Albornoz was in inspired form from the minute that Contepomi backed him in the starting XV and he never let go of the jersey producing majestic performances likened to that of the head coach in the fly-half jersey and the wonderfully brilliant Juan Martin Hernandez.
England’s form was woeful from July onwards but that was not down to the brilliance of Smith who at times was arguably the form player in the world. Following the departure of Owen Farrell to France, Smith has made the starting jumper his own and produced clutch moments in the Six Nations and was a constant threat and overall sensational player in July and November.
Meanwhile, Ramos may not have played in July but shone at full-back at the start of the Six Nations and in the number 10 jersey in the latter stages before being backed in the role again during November where he impressed in each game. He was brilliant off the tee too and played a huge role in Les Bleus going unbeaten during the Autumn.
There is even a case for Springboks pivot Handre Pollard who switched between starting and coming off the bench for Erasmus’ charges. While the likes of Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Manie Libbok and Jordan Hendrikse impressed during the year, the Boks never looked more unbeatable than when Pollard was on the pitch.
Argentina
It’s a real shame that after a brilliant year just one Los Pumas star made the Dream Team in Pablo Matera. The back-rower has been sublime and is fully deserving of piping Sititi to a place in the team but there were others who made strong claims to be included too. Mateo Carreras is one as is Albornoz, Julián Montoya and Marcos Kremer. Then there is the matter of Contepomi which we already addressed.
Argentina were also superb on the sevens circuit and only have Matías Osadczuk’s inclusion in the sevens dream team to show for it with no nominees for the player of the year award.
Props
We had to bring it up again. A prop has never been nominated for the Men’s 15s World Rugby Player of the Year Award and once Du Toit’s name was called out it was just another reminder of how fantastic it would have been had Ox Nche claimed the gong. He was sensational all year and if a prop was ever going to win the award, 2024 would have been an ideal time. Hell even a nominee for fellow prop Lomax was just as brilliant for New Zealand. Perhaps next year it will change but for now, #Justice4props.
7s Stalwarts
If Dupont is a winner, then Aaron Grandidier Nkanang and Terry Kennedy certainly have to be losers as the 15s star gets the top award in the men’s sevens game after just a handful of appearances. As mentioned it above, it does feel like it was a popularity vote and Dupont looked rather awkward and embarrassed in the photos when collecting the gong. The sevens game isn’t in a marvellous place right now highlighted by the fact that there are no European stops on the series this coming season and a XVs star claiming the top individual honour doesn’t help matters.
READ MORE: Full list of past winners and nominees for the World Rugby Player of the Year
