Consolation for Dusautoir as he is named player of year

France captain Thierry Dusautoir has been named International Rugby Board player of the year at a ceremony in Auckland. The award will come as some consolation to the 29-year-old flanker following his team’s 8-7 defeat to New Zealand in yesterday’s World Cup final at Eden Park.

Dusautoir succeeds All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw, who has won the accolade for the past two years, and becomes the first Frenchman to receive the award since Fabien Galthie in 2002.

New world champions New Zealand were not forgotten at Vector Arena, though, taking away the best team title and best coach gong for Graham Henry.

Dusautoir was picked ahead of five other nominees – New Zealand scrum-half Piri Weepu, flanker Jerome Kaino and centre Ma’a Nonu and Australia flanker David Pocock and scrum-half Will Genia. The winners were selected by an independent panel of judges, chaired by World Cup winner John Eales. The panel deliberated on every major Test match played this year, from the first RBS Six Nations match up to Sunday’s Eden Park showpiece.

Nineteen “founders, pioneers and legends of Rugby World Cup” were inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame, including four men who made a major contribution to the creation of the tournament, the winning coach and captain of every edition from 1987 to 2007 and four players who have left an indelible mark on past tournaments. Included was the late 1995 Springboks coach Kitch Christie, who was born in Johannesburg to a Scottish father and was educated at Leith Academy.

IRB AWARDS Player of the Year: Thierry Dusautoir

Team of the Year: New Zealand

Coach of the Year: Graham Henry

Junior Player of the Year: George Ford (England)

Sevens Player of the Year: Cecil Afrika (South Africa)

Women’s Personality of the Year: Ruth Mitchell

Referee Award for Distinguished Service: Keith Lawrence

Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service: Jock Hobbs

Development Award: Rookie Rugby

Spirit of Rugby Award: Wooden Spoon

Special Merit Award: George Smith (Australia)

Try of the Year: Radike Samo (Australia v New Zealand)

IRB Hall of Fame inductees: Dr Roger Vanderfield, Richard Littlejohn, Sir Nicholas Shehadie, John Kendall-Carpenter, David Kirk, Sir Brian Lochore, Nick Farr-Jones, Bob Dwyer, Francois Pienaar, Kitch Christie, Rod Macqueen, Martin Johnson CBE, Sir Clive Woodward OBE, John Smit, Jake White, Gareth Rees, Agustín Pichot, Brian Lima and Jonah Lomu. (1999 winning captain John Eales was inducted in 2007)