Pinetree Awards 2005

The Pinetree Awards are back and you could say they're bigger and better than before if they weren't actually the same size and of similar quality.

Last year, All Black great and convenor of judges Colin 'Pinetree' Meads pulled rank to award the first Golden Pinetree to Andrew Mehrtens -- "cheeky little bastard".

If Meads is pining for Mehrtens, now at London club Harlequins, he's not showing it.

The Te Kuiti farmer knows there is a job ahead and that only after the Grand Slam tour can the second annual Pinetree Awards be finalised. Helping him judge will be his son Glynn, Chiefs assistant coach Duane Monkley, former All Black Lee Stensness and the Herald on Sunday sports writers.

Meads doesn't expect the judges to rest, just as he thinks the All Blacks should be back playing NPC.

"I don't mind them having a couple of weeks. Six or seven weeks -- that's bloody ridiculous. What I hear is they want to get back and play but they've been told not to. I do think they're wrapping them in cotton wool a bit too much."

Meads, who's never been wrapped in cotton wool in his life, does accept that the Tri Nations test with the Springboks in Dunedin was a match for the ages.

"That was one of the greatest tests we've seen for many a year-- a bone-crunching, strength-sapping exercise. But I still think a couple of weeks is a bloody big break in a rugby season."

The winner of each category will receive a real pinetree and unlimited kudos.

Today, Meads guides readers through each category, sharing thoughts and philosophies of the season to date.

1 Golden Pinetree Award
For outstanding contribution to rugby. It could be a team, player, coach, administrator or Herald on Sunday journalist.

"At this stage I'd be leaning towards Richie McCaw," said Meads. "But Ali Williams is someone I've been critical of in the past but we've got to take our hat off to him and Graham Henry, who had the courage to persevere with him."

Meads also made mention of Keven Mealamu's marvellous season after Anton Oliver had been considered the saviour of the All Black tight five.

Last year's winner: Andrew Mehrtens.

2 People's Pinetree
The election is over but the public can still vote from today to decide their player of the year by emailing pinetree@heraldonsunday.co.nz (link at the bottom of this page).

"There'll be someone who'll capture the public's imagination," said Meads. "I think that Canterbury winger Scott Hamilton is making every post a winner. He looked the most unlikely candidate a couple of years ago."

Last year's winner: Wayne Ormond.

3 Best Amateur
A reward for one of rugby's plucky battlers. "Wairapapa Bush has a good halfback, I heard."

Last year's winner: Mark Bright (Nelson Bays).

4 Best Sidestep
"Luke McAlister's had a couple of good ones and Rua Tipoki left someone for dead early in the season." Meads wasn't referring to Tipoki's knock-out punch on a Stormers player in Cape Town, although he said of that blow: "By God, yeah, that was a good one."

Last year's winner: Luke McAlister.

5 Sweetest Pass
This is for the single best pass of the season and so far it's hard to get past Tana Umaga's long pass in the wet for Sitiveni Sivivatu to score in the first Lions test.

Last year's winner: Glen Horton.

6 Clear-Felling Award
Awarded to the most devastating runner.

Meads was spellbound by Joe Rokocoko in Dunedin. "For one try he had to roll over backwards and for his second he ploughed through the forwards."

Last year's winner: Sione Lauaki.

7 Tall Timber Award
For aerial excellence.

"Ali Williams will just about be certain of that."

Last year's winner: Chris Jack.

8 Pinus Radiata Award
For New Zealand rugby's best export.

Former Hamilton Marist fullback Mark Van Gisbergen starred in Wasps' English premiership victory in May, but it's still too early to tell if Meads' beloved Mehrtens will have done enough at Harlequins.

Last year's winner: Warren Gatland.

9 Services To Timber
It could be for Log of Wood heroics, someone resembling a tree, or in Byron Kelleher's case last year, giving the pine a break by getting off the All Black bench for once. Kelleher's porn-star girlfriend might be impressed he won a prize with this name.

Last year's winner: Byron Kelleher.

10 Most Under-Rated Player
"I still like Nick Evans," said Meads. "He's still a bloody good player. He's a physiotherapist so he'd be valuable on an All Black team I would have thought." Skilful Bay of Plenty winger Anthony Tahana, a finalist last year, was another to spring to mind.

Last year's winner: Glen Jackson.

11 Traditional Values
Someone who keeps rugby's history alive through deeds and/or sideburns.

Andrew Hore was a finalist last year but the seal shooting incident doesn't augur well. Asked if he'd ever shot at a sea mammal, Meads said: "No, not me."

Meads likes the look of Northland flanker Allen Tubbs. "He's farming, he can't get away for games all the time but he's a gutsy bastard."

Last year's winner: Gordon Slater.

12 Best Thought
"Worst thought was having a month off before the start of the Tri Nations," grumbled Meads.

But just as quickly he turned his attention to the new All Black haka. "I thought it was bloody brilliant. It scared the shit out of the South Africans and the French referee. He didn't know what to do -- he fair shat himself."

Last year's winner: Graham Henry (All Black trial).

13 Best Tackler
"You'd have to go with Jerry Collins," said Meads. "Others will be in the mix like Marty Holah. He was outstanding for the Maori against the Lions -- although I don't know how he found the Maori. I thought he was Dutch."

Last year's winner: Richie McCaw.

14 Pinecone Award
For the next big thing in New Zealand rugby.

"I still like this boy Kevin O'Neill from Canterbury -- I think he should be the fourth lock on the Grand Slam tour." And another lock, Southland's Hoani McDonald, has big-game potential too.

Last year's winner: Nick Williams (North Harbour).

15 Best Mate
No one has given a kidney away yet so the award for an outstanding example of friendship is wide open.

Lawrence Dallaglio might qualify for the English recipient of a Pinetree Award by ensuring Bay of Plenty's Colin Bourke got his No 8 Lions jersey, while Dallaglio was in hospital. "That was a great gesture if it's true," said Meads.

Last year's winner: Grant Kereama.