RUGBY - Captain Obvious clinches supreme award

A year as the main man in the Northland rugby team netted Justin Collins the supreme award at the Northland Rugby Awards dinner last night.
Now all that is left is for the Northland Rugby Union to announce that the sun will rise tomorrow morning.
When it came to deciding who the best player in the Northland rugby team was this season, it was hardly surprising that the award went to Captain Obvious.
Collins, the captain of the Northland team, played every game of the representative campaign, a fact all the more meritorious for the fact that he also topped the tackle count, was ranked as one of the busiest players in the whole Air NZ Cup competition and is knocking on the door of his 33rd birthday.
Now all that is left is for the inspirational Northland rugby star to step up for yet another campaign of Super 14 rugby with the Blues.
Collins has already confirmed his availability for Blues selection. Now all he needs is the word from Blues coach David Nucifora to add more games to his impressive 80-odd game tally of Super 14 rugby games.
So while he was pleased to accept two of the major awards last night, Player of the Year and Player's Player of the Year, Collins obviously has some more statistics to add to his impressive rugby resume yet.
When it came to deciding who was the pick of his bunch, Northland assistant coach Bruce Robertson said it was no contest. The prospect of getting all the Air NZ Cup players named for awards last night included in the list of Super 14 players announced next week was looking good too.
``I think Collins is just so consistent through each game. He is such a good captain as well. He led the team very well, on and off the field,' Robertson said.
``I think it was pretty obvious really,' he said.
``I would hope that all these players would be in with a show, or at least are getting looked at, for Super 14 anyway. We would be hopeful that all these boys named in our awards will be up for Super 14 contracts.'
Last night Fetu Vainikolo was predictably named most improved back for his feats on the wing, while Bronson Murray capped off a strong season at tighthead prop by picking up the gong for most improved forward.
Departing back Daniel Bowden was given the ``coaches choice' award.
Bowden has signed to transfer to Otago next year.
It wasn't just the Air NZ Cup team that featured last night either.
Carl Murray picked up back of the year and player of the year for the Northland development team while referee Peter Nock was named both as Northland referee of the year and voted as the best whistle blower in the province by all the premier club rugby coaches as well.
Brad Christensen was named development team forward of the year, Roy Griffin under-20s player of the year and Michael Hauraki the under-18 player of the year.
While the awards evening was officially the final act of the season for the NRU, there is still plenty of work to be done in terms of player recruitment and retention for next season and still no official clarification about the format for premier club rugby next year.
After an exhaustive review, a 10-team format used for the Northland-wide premier club competition seems set to be abandoned altogether in favour of a 10-team Southern Districts competition.
But the NRU has yet to officially announce any changes despite indicating it was going to reveal a new-look club rugby programme in September.