Often a player wins one of the voted Player of the Season awards with a Wasps-like late spurt catching people's eyes late in the season, The Craic award has to be earned from the London Double Header to the final whistle of the final.

This year's results show a real team performance, there are 16 named players and for the first time a great many ties for the MotM awards. It is quite poetic that the Man of the Match selected by Craic denizens for the first and last match is the Whole Team. We're usually a curmudgeonly lot and yet "Nobody" only received one award - the EDF match away at Sixways. That was a forgettable day in a memorable season. The boys should be proud

Bringing up the rear of the winners are Richard Thorpe and Alfredo Lalane who both shared one award each (although not with each other). I gave shared wins the same merit as a win but a reduced value when splitting draws - I think that's the fairest way to go.

Next is a crop of single winners, in no particular order - The Armitage brothers, Sailosi Tagicakibau and Adam Thompstone. Here we see the strangeness of The Craic poll system. You'd have thought all four of these would be up there at the top. Adam was our highest try-scorer in the GP (despite only a handful of appearances), Delon has really come to the fore on a world stage with Steffon snapping at his heels and collecting plaudits aplenty. Sailosi is, in my (and a few others) opinion, the single best winger in the GP. None of this was, however, good enough for The Craic award, sorry chaps.

Mike Catt MBE (37) is one of the stories of the year. Picking up two MotM awards (one shared) he begins our winners of a pair. The smile on Catty's face toward the end of the season and the obvious pride in the team he and Toby have brought to the top table says everything you need to know about him. Another stellar season for King Catt and he's not hung the boots up quite yet.

Alongside The Whole Team on two individual awards are Alex Cobisiero, Elvis Seviali'i and James Hudson. Alex consolidated his incredible last season despite a couple of injuries and showed himself to be an emerging force in the GP, this young man is going places. Elvis arrived at Irish owing us for the heart-breaking try he scored to keep us in the relegation-zone back in 2003. I didn't think it'd be possible for him to repay us quickly but he really has - the slate is clean Elvis but please keep up the performances. Sadly, also going places, loss of the season "Little" Jimmy Hudson managed to play so consistently well he actually managed the impossible - giving Toby Booth pause for thought before writing Nick Kennedy or Bob Casey on the team-sheet. The sight of implausible-runner Jimmy making a dash for the line was a thing of beauty, we'll miss you Mr Hudson, enjoy the sunny North East.

Previous winner of this award Shane Geraghty is also moving-on. Sadly his contract shenanigans and seemingly Cipriani-esque quest for money has rather blotted his copy-book with a great many Irish supporters. We don't know all the facts but, unfortunately, the bitter taste of the affair means a rather shabby end to a brilliant career at Irish. Before it all went a bit Pete Tong, though, Shane shared one award and won two outright, he's a prodigious talent and will be missed. Expect him to come back and make us pay with his new club Saints.

Two more previous winners and one of the young players of the season take second runner-up slot. Declan Danaher was last year's winner and has continued from there with some absolutely massive performances. Now one of the most experienced players in the squad Dec pretty-much is London Irish.

Paul "Dodge" Hodgson is, quite simply, the best scrum-half in England. Even Cake-boy Barnes admitted that Dodge is overlooked on the international scene before, in the next sentence, completely ignoring him as the Rugby Club discussed a replacement for Dwayne Peel in the Lions squad. This doesn't seem to put Paul off luckily and he makes the most of every performance for us, for England - he'd probably turn-out for the Fairies if we asked him...

Tom Homer has a dodgy barnet. Nothing like Elvis' production number but it is quite startling to see none-the-less. Tom was called-in from the academy when injuries and international commitments left our small-squad a little bare. It's a big step-up from academy to first team but Tom doesn't seem to have noticed. Three Man of the Match awards at 18 is staggering.

Runner-up, Peter Hewat, received 4 awards - the same as the winner - but two of them were shared, keeping him off the top-spot. Peter's performances this season have been phenomenal and he's been a big part of the whole-team improvement this season. When Pete's ankle was injured it coincided with the dip in the team's performances - this isn't a coincidence. Irish with Pete Hewat playing are a different proposition, his runs at full-back forced Delon to try outside centre and Peter easily switched to Fly-Half when he was asked to. A real talent and a worthy runner-up.

Also on four Man of the Match awards is the man who scooped the Players' Player of the Year award. Seilala Mapusua is a force of nature, both a sublime runner who can use space and a blunt instrument that can crash straight through defences. Combine this with a virtually supernatural ability to off-load safely from any tackle and you have about as perfect a rugby player as is possible. Crowned by The Rugby Club's Will Greenwood as the "Best Ball Carrier in the Universe" Seilala has received many similar plaudits in a quite superb season. It's ironic that pretty-much his final act at the MadStad this year was to give a wayward pass to put the Bourgoin's Matthieu Nicolas in for the match-winning try. It's memorable for two reasons, firstly it was heart-breaking for Irish but secondly because it was about the only thing Maps did wrong all season.

So, I think you'll agree, a worthy winner to join Naka, Phil, Bob, Paul, Shane and Declan on the role-of-honour. The 2008/9 Craic Player of the Season is Seilala Mapusua!

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