By Large
May 20 2002

The votes have been counted in the end of season poll. There weren't many surprises in the Player of the Year category, the Least Favourite Player category and the Best Rugby Moment category. Irish are loved, Johnson is hated and nobody seems to care at all about Bristol.... I've added my nominations at the bottom of each result, but they were not included in the final voting as several categories would have gone different ways had I counted my votes towards them.

Thanks to everyone that took the trouble to send me a filled questionnaire and to the Fezboys for giving me the template. Cheers!


PART I: PLAYERS
===============

1. SARACENS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

1. Adryan Winnan
2. Robbie Russell
3. Richard Hill
Others: Tim Horan, Sarrie the Camel
Large’s choice: Robbie Russell

2. SARACENS YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

1. Adryan Winnan
2. Ben Russell
3. Luke Harbut
Large’s choice: Adey Winnan

3. ZURICH PREMIERSHIP PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

1= Barry Everitt, Ryan Strudwick, Charlie Hodgson, Richard Hill.
Others: Declan Danaher, James Simpson-Daniel, Lewis Moody, Mark Cueto, Jason Robinson, Jonny Wilkinson
Large’s choice: Jamie Forrester

4. INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

1. Jonny Wilkinson
2= Jason Robinson
2= Brian O’Driscoll
Others, Harinordoquay, Dominguez, DeVilliers, McCaw, Umaga, Madden.
Large’s choice: Chris Whitaker (NSW scrum half)


5. FAVOURITE PLAYER:
This will read next year as favourite Sarries player as there were quite a few from outside the camp that were nominated.

1. Richard Hill (by a street)
Others: Horan, Winnan, Castaignede, Smith, Kelleher, Leota, Wood.
Large’s choice: I don’t really have one, but I respect Hill the most.

6. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN OPPOSITION PLAYER AGAINST SARACENS:
No overall winner here, everyone that sent in a completed questionnaire picked someone different. Among those nominated were Ludovic Mercier for his game at Kingsholm, Jonny Wilkinson for turning it around at Kingston Park and Trevor Leota for his match-winning performance at Vicarage Road for Wasps. Best of all was the nomination of Ashley Rowden. More from our Ashley later….

Large’s choice: Easy. Iain Fullarton for Sale up at Heywood Road. Took Murray et al to the cleaners.

7. LEAST FAVOURITE OPPOSITION PLAYER:
Hereafter called the Martin Johnson Least Favourite Opposition Award. The Leicester, England and Lions captain licked the opposition. (Is that the right word to use?)

1. Martin Johnson
2. Matt Dawson
3 = Austin Healey, Budge Poutney
Large’s choice: Always has been, always will be, Richard bloody Cockerill

8. PLAYER YOU'D MOST LIKE TO JOIN SARRIES FOR NEXT SEASON
I should have called this one “Which outside half would you like to join Sarries next season”.

1. Jonny Wilkinson
2. Andrew Mehrtens
Others: Pieter De Villiers was the only non-no10 there. The rest were Spencer, McRae, Mercier, Brown and Hodgson.
Large’s choice: Ryan Powell, Cardiff scrum half.


PART II: CLUBS
==============

1. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SARACENS TEAM:

1. Quins home
2= Sale home, Bath away.
4. Bristol away
Others: Bath home, Ladies XV winning the league (!)
Large’s choice: Oh, so MANY! Bristol away. Weathering the storm for the last 15 minutes was a fantastic achievement.


2. WORST PERFORMANCE BY A SARACENS TEAM:

1. Leeds home
2. Irish home
3 = Quins away, Leicester home
Other: Newcastle home
Large’s choice: Leeds home.

3. FAVOURITE CLUB TO VISIT FOR AN AWAY GAME:

1. Irish
2. = Northampton, Bath
Others: Leicester, Quins, Munster (what?), Dinamo Bucuresti
Large’s choice: Believe it or not, Gloucester.


4. LEAST FAVOURITE CLUB TO VISIT FOR AN AWAY GAME

1. Wasps
2. Leicester
3. Gloucester
Others: Newcastle, Sale, Northampton, Cardiff (but we didn’t play there this year)
Large’s choice: I have yet to have someone convince me that anywhere is worse than London Irish to watch a rugby match. (sorry chaps)


5. BEST OPPOSITION FANS:

1. Irish
2 = Pontypridd, Northampton
Others: Gloucester, Quins, Munster
Large’s choice: of all the fans to come to VR this season, Ponty were the best.

6. WORST OPPOSITION FANS.

1. Gloucester
2. Leicester
3. Northampton
Large’s choice: Leicester.

7. FAVOURITE TEAM (NON-SARACENS)
I should have added non-Irish as they walked away with this one.

1. Irish
2. Munster
Others: Redruth, Northampton, Marlow, Sale.
Large’s choice: you have to ask? Neath.

8. LEAST FAVOURITE TEAM:

1. Leicester
2. Northampton
Others: Newcastle, Gloucester, Wasps, Quins, Cardiff.
Large’s choice: Leicester.

9. BEST BAR:

1. Harlequins
2. Northampton
Others: Irish, Leicester
Large’s choice: Gloucester

10. WORST BAR:

1. Saracens
2. London Irish
3. Northampton
Large’s choice: London Irish

11. BEST 'SOLIDS':

1. Northampton
2. Wasps
Others: Bath, Quins
Large’s choice: Leicester

12. WORST 'SOLIDS':
A message to the club here. CHANGE THE CATERERS!

1. Saracens
2. Wasps
Others: Newcastle, Dinamo Bucuresti, Pierre Durant (!)
Large’s choice: Quins. Extortionate prices for very little nosebag.


PART III: MISCELLANEOUS
=======================

1. BEST CONTRIBUTION TO THESARACENS.COM MESSAGE BOARD:

No overall winner in this category, but the best submission to the poll was “The banning or Kaunton Harkett”
Large’s choice: You’re all great! ;-)




2. BEST RUGBY MOMENT OF THE SEASON:
Must add the word “Sarries” to this next year

1. Tim Horan’s try at Bath
Others: Jason Robinson’s try against France. Ben Cohen’s try against Ireland, Ben Johnston’s try against Wasps at VR, Kris Chesney flattening Iain Balshaw, Scotland beating Wales (thank you for reminding me, Sinclair), Final whistle at Bristol.
Large’s choice: Tim Horan running down Jamie Forrester at Glaws when JF had a 15 metre head start.


3. FUNNIEST RUGBY MOMENT OF THE SEASON:
I’ll have to rename this next season to “on the field” moment. Some had Sarrie and Mario here, others in the category below.

1= Sarrie the Camel and Super Mario (the Identicar Bologna physio)
Others: Kyran Bracken the lineout jumper, Ashley Rowden, Luke Smith’s “banana” penalty at Bath, Diprose and Gollings fluffing a golden try opportunity for Quins away at Wasps, Ollie le Roux being called a “Walking, talking burger” by Will Chignell, Thomas C’s big grin when he took the field at Northampton. DeBeer’s fake penalty at LI.
Large’s choice: DeBeer at Irish.


4. FUNNIEST NON-RUGBY MOMENT OF THE SEASON:

1= Sarrie the Camel and Super Mario again!
Others: The chant of “Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!” during “Five minute madness” at VR, Paul Sackey (complete with blond hair) being compared to a flat pint of Guinness by the Irish MC, Boonie’s Beard, Francois Pienaar running away from a stalker in Bologna, Billy blood drop
Large’s choice: Sarrie mimicking the touch judge in the Bath game.

5. BEST REFEREE
Come on folks, you can do better than a collective list of FIVE nominations! I have not put in the internatonal referees as this is a Sarries/ZP poll. I'll add "ZP" next year!

1. Robin Goodliffe
2= Roy Maybank, Chris White
Others: Answers on a postcard please….
Large’s choice: Tony Spreadbury

6. WORST REFEREE
Probably the most hotly-contested category:

1. Ashley Rowden
2. Steve Lander
3. Chris White
Large’s choice: Dave Pearson


7. BEST MEDIA PERFORMANCE BY A RUGBY CELEBRITY
John Inverdale is disqualified as he’s a professional broadcaster, as is Bill McLaren!

1= Austin Healey and Will Greenwood’s contributions as guests on Rugby Special
Others: Martin Johnson (after the Russell incident), Stuart Barnes on Adey Winnan, Keith Wood on Rugby Special,



Large’s choice: Austin Healey on RS. A natural.

8. WORST MEDIA PERFORMANCE BY A RUGBY CELEBRITY

1. Jeremy Guscott
2. Keith Wood
Others: Rob Henderson, Will Carling, Austin Healey
Large’s choice: Jeremy Guscott