ERE Player of the Season

By Glen Leat & Peter Snow
May 19 2005

The season is over and all we can do is look forward to receiving our season ticket forms, the Lions down under and a long hot summer with England snatching the Ashes from the Aussies. But before we draw a final line under last season let's see who you voted as the ERE Player of the Season.

 

It was nip and tuck throughout the voting period with Andy Beattie in front for a very long time but eventually Zac Fea'unati grabbed the win in the final few days. I have to say this surprised me somewhat as (personally) I thought Zac had a better season in the previous year and this past season saw Andy Beattie emerge as a player fit to challenge for international honours. 

Perhaps had The Beast not suffered injury at a crucial part of the season he would have swung the voting his way. Having said that, we should all offer our congratulations to Zac who made the most Premiership appearances (21) of any player in the Bath squad, but his 2 tries has to be considered a disappointment given the domination of our scrum against most teams.

The third of the back-row trio, Michael Lipman, also did well in the vote coming a very creditable third with 17%. Like Beattie, Lipman fell foul to an injury at a crucial time in the season and though playing 15 Premiership games he similarly missed out at the crucial end of the season.

Not surprisingly the backs received few votes but perhaps had I included Matt Perry in the list we would have seen a shift: whether this would have been sentimental votes rather than a true reflection of impact this year I'm not sure but there are enough Pezza fans out there who would surely have given him more than the 5% top backs vote received by Chris Malone.

In the old days of the ERE magazine we used to have the "Cauliflower ERE Awards" to recognise the ridiculous in rugby for the past season, perhaps it's time we resurrected this award. here's a few to get us going:

"The Duke" Award  - for the best sun tan in rugby - this can only go to our old (and now retired) friend Steve Lander. "Come on Mr Back give him a hand! Oi no, I said a hand not a shove. Sorry Steve, can I help you to your feet?"

The "We're Too Big To Go Down" Award - this was nearly awarded to Katie Price by default after the third of her scuba diving lessons but eventually Mark Evans pushed Katie off the stage and grabbed the award on behalf of Harlequins.

The "I'm Bitter And I'll Dish The Dirt Award" - is a special award funded by all the "lads mags" as it's their stock-in-trade and it can only go (sadly) to a Bath legend who may have to pay a bit of a penance before coming back to the Rec - the pawsmeister himself, Mr Michael Catt the First Earl of Mogg.