A standout year for women's rugby has been recognised by New Zealand Rugby with women headlining this year's New Zealand Rugby Awards.
Photo: © www.Photosport.nz 2018
Black Ferns halfback Kendra Cocksedge, and All Blacks Richie Mo'unga, Brodie Retallick and Codie Taylor have all been nominated for the Kelvin R Tremain Memorial Player of the Year award.
Cocksedge is also in the running for Women's Player of the Year as she continued to impress in 2018 at the provincial and international level, and this year became the first player to surpass 1000 first-class points in the Farah Palmer Cup.
Back-to-back World Cup Sevens champions and Commonwealth Games Gold medallists the Black Ferns Sevens and the All Blacks Sevens, and the world number one ranked All Blacks, are nominated for the New Zealand team of the year.
The Crusaders, Auckland and Thames Valley are shortlisted for a new adidas National team of the year award.
Two coaching categories are introduced to recognise the depth of coaching talent in New Zealand at a provincial, Super Rugby and national level, and two new team categories will reward the best of the teams representing New Zealand on the international stage, and best of teams in national and Super Rugby competitions.
Head coaches from New Zealand teams - Allan Bunting (Black Ferns Sevens), Steve Hansen (All Blacks), and Clark Laidlaw (All Blacks Sevens) have been shortlisted for New Zealand Coach of the Year.
Nominations for the inaugural National Coach of the Year for Super Rugby and Provincial Union teams are Alama Ieremia (Auckland), Kieran Kite (Canterbury), and Scott Robertson (Crusaders).
In his first year as Coach for Auckland, Ieremia took the team to their first Mitre 10 Cup win since 2007, while Robertson secured back to back Super Rugby titles for the Crusaders and Kite coached the Canterbury team to back to back Farah Palmer Cup titles.