The judging panel for the annual Halberg Awards must delight in the controversy it can provoke each February.
Handing the supreme award on Thursday night to the All Whites for their efforts in South Africa at the Fifa World Cup guaranteed a one-dimensional response from rugby devotees.
The
All Blacks won routine fixtures all year: untroubled in the Tri Nations, dropping just an exhibition match in Hong Kong, and were not-so-grand in a Grand Slam tour.
Their advocates say wins in a sport with perhaps seven viable contenders prevail over draws against vastly higher ranked opponents in the cauldron of a global event second-only to the Olympics.
The judges instead liked a group of journeymen with one durably international-class player, Ryan Nelsen, who rose way above themselves and the expectations of any pundit, anywhere.
They humbled the world champions, Italy, holding them to a draw, and showed extreme mental and physical stamina to share honours with the clever and dangerous Slovakia and Paraguay.
An original inscription on the Sportsman of the Year trophy targeted "personal performances or example which had the most beneficial effect on the advancement of sport in the country".
The winning-is-everything camp undervalues sports' greatest virtues of teamwork, consistency, grit and spirit which elevate performances into a "whole" far, far greater than the sum of its parts.
The All Blacks get their chance to show these qualities in seven months. A Halberg awaits.
