![\"Braxton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/382be2_e0f2c8f2c4c14388acb35958cbe9598a~mv2.jpg\")
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Braxton Sorensen-McGee along with fellow World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year Fabian Holland are finalists in the NZ Rugby Awards PHOTO: RUGBY WORLD CUP<\/p>\n
New Zaland’s World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year winners Fabian Holland and Braxton Sorensen-McGee have been named as finalists for the national rugby awards.<\/p>\n
Lock Holland, who played 12 of the All Blacks 13 tests this year, is up for All Blacks Player of the Year alongside Ardie Savea, Quinn Tupaea and Cam Roigard.<\/p>\n
Back Fern try-scoring star Sorensen-McGee Ferns was an instrumental memebr of the team which finished third at the Rugby World Cup. She is a finalist for Black Ferns Player of the Year along with Jorja Miller, Kaipo Olsen-Baker and Georgia Ponsonby.<\/p>\n
The winners will be announced on December 11.<\/p>\n
The Kelvin R Tremain Memorial Player of the Year will be awarded to one of the winners of the major Player of the Year categories. <\/p>\n
The New Zealand Coach of the Year and New Zealand Team of the Year will be announced on the night, with all teams in black and their respective coaches eligible.<\/p>\n
Interestingly the National Women’s Coach nominees are all men – Matt Direen (Otago), <\/p>\n
Reuben Samuel (Waikato), Willie Walker (Blues). <\/p>\n
The men’s nominees are all from the South Island – Marty Bourke (Canterbury)<\/p>\n
Mark Brown (Otago), Rob Penney (Crusaders), <\/p>\n
The men’s National Team of the Year nominees are all from the great Canterbury region – Canterbury, Crusaders, Mid-Canterbury.<\/p>\n
The Steinlager Salver, the most prestigious award in New Zealand rugby, will acknowledge someone who has given sustained service to the game. Previous recipients include: Sir Colin Meads, Jock Hobbs, Waka Nathan, Sir Tuifa’asisina Bryan Williams and Dr Deb Robinson.<\/p>\n
2025 New Zealand Rugby Awards finalists:<\/p>\n
Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Du’Plessis Kirifi (Hurricanes)<\/p>\n
Ardie Savea (Moana Pasifika)<\/p>\n
Super Rugby Aupiki Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Braxton Sorensen McGee (Blues)<\/p>\n
Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (Blues)<\/p>\n
Richard Crawshaw Memorial All Blacks Sevens Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Black Ferns Sevens Player of the Year<\/p>\n
New Zealand Rugby Age Grade Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Braxton Sorensen-McGee (Auckland)<\/p>\n
National Men’s Coach of the Year<\/p>\n
Marty Bourke (Canterbury)<\/p>\n
National Women’s Coach of the Year<\/p>\n
New Zealand Rugby Referee of the Year<\/p>\n
Maggie Cogger-Orr (Auckland)<\/p>\n
Ben O’Keeffe (North Harbour)<\/p>\n
National Men’s Team of the Year<\/p>\n
Tom French Memorial M\u0101ori Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Kurt Eklund (Ng\u0101ti Kahu)<\/p>\n
Quinn Tupaea (Ngaati Tiipa, Ngaati Amaru)<\/p>\n
Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (Ng\u0101puhi\/Ng\u0101ti Kahu ki Whaingaroa\/Ng\u0101ti Porou)<\/p>\n
All Blacks Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Black Ferns Player of the Year<\/p>\n
Hunterville Rugby Football Club (Whanganui)<\/p>\n
Rangataua Sports and Cultural Club (Bay of Plenty)<\/p>\n
Waimate Rugby Football Club (South Canterbury)<\/p>\n
Charles Monro Volunteer of the Year<\/p>\n
Glen Devenie (Auckland Rugby Referee Association, Auckland)<\/p>\n
Stacey Kobus (Cambridge Junior Rugby and Community Sports Club, Waikato)<\/p>\n
Jodi Taylor (Strath Taieri Rugby Club, Otago)<\/p>\n
Te H\u0101pai Community Impact Award<\/p>\n
Cian Byrne-Hansen (Counties Manukau)<\/p>\n
Peter Hastings (Bay of Plenty)<\/p>\n
Sosoli Talawadua (Whanganui)<\/p>\n
Duane Monkley Medal (NPC Player of the Year)<\/p>\n
Folau Fakatava (Hawke’s Bay)<\/p>\n
Fiao’o Faamausili Medal (Farah Palmer Cup Player of the Year)<\/p>\n
Grace Houpapa-Barrett (Waikato)<\/p>\n
Holly Williams (North Harbour)<\/p>\n
Ian Kirkpatrick Medal (Heartland Championship Player of the Year)<\/p>\n
Declan McCormack (Mid Canterbury)<\/p>\n
Keanu Taumata (Poverty Bay)<\/p>\n
Sam Walton-Sexton (Wairarapa Bush)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braxton Sorensen-McGee along with fellow World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year Fabian Holland are finalists in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-313702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}