In a year when the All Blacks have remained unbeaten in nine matches to date, unsurprisingly their twin totems, Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, are both amongst the shortlist of four players for the IRB Player of the Year 2012 Award.

Completing the list are the reborn Frederic Michalak, who has had a monumental year in helping the Sharks to the Super 15 final and Toulon’s rise to the top of the Top 14, and then guiding France to four successive wins after two years out of international test rugby.

The shortlist is completed by England’s Owen Farrell, who curiously is nominated ahead of South African player of the year Bryan Habana (scorer of seven tries in the Rugby Championship), the brilliant All Blacks number eight Kieran Read and Argentina captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe .

That perhaps highlights how slightly discredited the award has become over the years due to a flawed voting system featuring a huge judging panel of former judges.