New Zealand Rugby congratulates New Zealand winners at World Rugby Awards 2018
- Michaela Blyde – Women’s Sevens Player of the Year
- DJ Forbes – joint International Rugby Players Special Merit Award
- Brodie Retallick – Try of the Year
Black Ferns Sevens speedster Michaela Blyde has been named Women’s Sevens Player of the year, All Blacks Sevens legend DJ Forbes has been presented with a special merit award and All Black lock Brodie Retallick has won Try of the Year at this year’s World Rugby Awards this morning (NZT) in Monaco.
Retired All Blacks Sevens skipper Forbes, and Australian rugby stalwart Stephen Moore were jointly presented with the International Rugby Players Special Merit Award, to recognise their continuing contribution to rugby.
Michaela Blyde won the award for the second consecutive year, in a category that New Zealand was guaranteed to win with skipper Sarah Goss and teammate Portia Woodman also nominated for best Women’s Sevens Player.
Her award win follows a highlights reel-worthy year with the Black Ferns Sevens, winning Gold at the Commonwealth Games and retaining the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Blyde was named in the Dream Teams for both the HSBC World Series and RWC7s and was also named the Impact Player of the HSBC Series for a second time in 2018.
The Black Ferns Sevens have their last hit out of 2018 in Dubai this weekend, certain in the knowledge they will play in front of a home crowd at a special tournament running parallel to the HSBC New Zealand Sevens tournament in Hamilton in January.
All Black lock Brodie Retallick won the Best Try of the Year award for his dazzling finishing skills in the first Bledisloe Cup Test against Australia in Sydney in August.
New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Tew congratulated all the nominees and winners on their achievements.
“This is a great opportunity to celebrate how strong rugby is across the globe. It’s a testament to all the men and women who work incredibly hard for the black jersey and for rugby, and all nominations and awards deserve recognition.
“DJ is creating a wonderful legacy on the international stage and, continuing to promote sevens rugby around the world. We know that he is still a popular figure on the sevens circuit, which is remarkable – but to us not surprising – given he is no longer playing. Congratulations to DJ on this award.
“Congratulations to Michaela and her Black Ferns Sevens teammates – we are incredibly proud of the way these players represent themselves and New Zealand around the world. Michaela has had an outstanding year, but in typical fashion, she credits her success as coming from the team around her.
“Congratulations also to Brodie for recognition of his award for best try. It is a great reward for his increasingly dynamic skillset.
“There were very worthy winners across all categories and our sincere congratulations goes out to all of them, in particular to Ireland with Joe Schmidt winning Coach of the Year, the Irish team for winning Team of the Year and Johnny Sexton for picking up men’s Player of the Year,” said Tew.
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