Reader's Openside Flanker of the Year
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As the year draws to a close we take a look back at the year that was and have nominated four players from each position for your team of the year.
We have included players based on their club and test form, particularly their form at the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
In case you missed them, we selected the four nominees for Loosehead prop, Hooker, tighthead prop, the no.4 lock, no.5 lock and Blindside Flanker
We move onto the loose trio:
Ardie Savea - New Zealand
Ardie Savea picked up three awards at the New Zealand Rugby Awards Evening 🙌
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) December 12, 2019
🏅 Kelvin R Tremain Memorial Award
🏅NZ Super Rugby Player of the Year
🏅 All Blacks Player of the Year pic.twitter.com/u7ztIO9Y5S
- Made 42 turnovers in all competitions (25 games)
- Averaged over 10 tackles a game
- Won the most turnovers in Super Rugby
- Helped the Hurricanes to the Super Rugby semi-final.
- Forced his way into the All Blacks starting line up.
- Won Three Awards at the New Zealand Rugby Awards Evening.
- Nominee for World Player of the Year.
Sam Underhill - England
- Was injured for a large portion of the year.
- Returned in time for the World Cup
- Starred in the back row alongside Tom Curry and Billy Vunipola
- Put in a fantastic performance against New Zealand in the semi final
Justin Tipuric - Wales
- Featured in 4 of Wales' 5 Grand Slam Six Nations matches
- Was in excellent form during the World Cup
- Was one of the top 10 tacklers at the World Cup and only Maro Itoje made more turnovers.
Michael Hooper - Waratahs
- Made more tackles than any other player in Super Rugby, averaging 15 tackles per game.
- Made the second most tackles in the Rugby Championship (35) just one behind Pieter-Steph du Toit
- Was consistently great for the Wallabies despite it being a disappointing year for Australia.
