International Rugby
Try of the Year nominees announced
ESPN Staff
November 22, 2012
Try time for South Africa' Bryan Habana, South Africa v Australia, The Rugby Championship, Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria, South Africa, September 29, 2012
South Africa's Bryan Habana is one of four wingers in the running for this year's IRB Try of the Year award © Getty Images
Enlarge

The International Rugby Board has announced the contenders for this year's Try of the Year award.

Wingers dominate the four-try shortlist with New Zealand duo Julian Savea and Hosea Gear, South Africa's Bryan Habana and France's Julien Malzieu all in the running for the honour that is presented by International Rugby Players' Association (IRPA).

This quartet of tries was selected by a panel of All Blacks Test centurion Mils Muliaina, South Africa's Try of the Year 2009 winner Jaque Fourie, former IRB Player of the Year Shane Williams and Japan's Daisuke Ohata, the leading try scorer in Test Rugby.

Flying the flag for Europe in the Try of the Year shortlist is Malzieu. The tall and rangy wing fended off two would-be tacklers before stepping inside another in a mesmerising run on his way to Italy's try-line in their Six Nations encounter in Paris.

Gear's effort in the third Test against Ireland in June was all about power and pace, too. The speedster got on the end of a tremendous offload from Conrad Smith following an overthrown Ireland lineout, and raced down the left touchline, leaving his opposite number for dead. Gear then bulldozed his way past Keith Earls to score in the corner.

Habana's try stemmed from a lineout move bang on the All Blacks' 10-metre line during The Rugby Championship match in Dunedin. While off balance South Africa scrum half Ruan Pienaar was able to get his pass away to the onrushing Habana, who took the ball at pace and then gathered his own chip ahead for a marvellous score.

Rounding off the nominations is Savea's second try for New Zealand against Scotland at Murrayfield earlier this month. Dan Carter's deft kick over the Scottish defence was caught on the bounce by Savea, who stood up his man before sprinting over in the left hand corner.

Rugby fans are being given the chance to name their favourite but the panel, which between them boast more than 300 Test matches and 195 international tries, has the unenviable task of deciding which of these tries should be named the IRPA Try of the Year 2012 with the winner set to be announced on November 29.

Previous winners:
2011 - Radike Samo (Australia) - Australia v New Zealand
2010 - Chris Ashton (England) - England v Australia
2009 - Jaque Fourie (South Africa) - South Africa v British & Irish Lions
2008 - Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland) - Australia v Ireland
2007 - Taku Ngwenya (USA) - USA v South Africa

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.