Sam Burgess wins RLIF International Player of the Year award

Sam Burgess has become the first Englishman to be crowned as RLIF International Player of the Year.

Burgess emerged top from  a group of nominees which included fellow English international James Graham, Dally M Medal winners Johnathan Thurston and Jarryd Hayne, along with Super League‘s Man of Steel winner Daryl Clark.

“Sam was wonderful for England in the World Cup last year and his performances for South Sydney through the NRL season were first-class, all the way to his Clive Churchill Medal effort in the grand final against Canterbury-Bankstown,” RLIF chairman Nigel Wood said.

“He is a worthy recipient and deserves to be recognised for his achievements over the past year on the international stage as well as in the NRL competition.”

The RLIF also handed the Spirit of Rugby League Award to Peter Corcoran, largely for his work on developing modified forms of the game.

The voting panel for the awards consisted of 10 judges, five from the Northern Hemisphere and five from the Southern Hemisphere.

This panel was asked to assign votes to three players from a group of 10 nominees (five from Super League, five from the NRL), in 3-2-1 fashion.

Warrington also picked up two awards, with Matty Russell being named as Scotland‘s international player of the year, and Rhys Evans getting the nod for Wales.

Castleford’s Liam Finn won the award for Ireland.

RLIF INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD HONOUR ROLL

2008 Billy Slater (Australia)
2009 Jarryd Hayne (Australia)
2010 Todd Carney (Australia)
2011 Billy Slater (Australia)
2012 Cameron Smith (Australia)
2013 Sonny Bill Williams (New Zealand)
2014 Sam Burgess (England)

NATIONS PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Cook Islands Dominique Peyroux
Fiji Semi Radradra
France Rémi Casty
Ireland Liam Finn
Jamaica Nathan Campbell
Lebanon Chris Saab
PNG Israel Eliab
Russia Kirill Kosharin
Samoa David Fa’alogo
Scotland Matty Russell
Serbia Stefan Nedeljkovic
South Africa Ruaan du Preez
Tonga Jason Taumalolo
Ukraine Oleksandr Skorbach
Wales Rhys Evans
USA Joseph Paulo
Canada Steve Piatek

RLIF SPIRIT OF RUGBY LEAGUE AWARD

Peter Corcoran