Try of the Year have been revealed by World Rugby, with All Blacks winger Julian Savea appearing twice.
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He joins French prop Vincent Debaty, Welsh flanker Justin Tipuric, Tonga winger Fetu’u Vainikolo and Japan fullback Ayumu Goromaru on the short list for the award.
Savea needs only one try in Saturday’s World Cup final against Australia to break the record of eight tries at a single World Cup he holds jointly with New Zealand’s Jonah Lomu (1999) and South Africa’s Bryan Habana (2007).
Reason: Owens the ref, or is he?
The only All Black to win the try of the year award was Beauden Barrett, who scored following a length-of-the-field movement against France in Christchurch in 2013.
Selected by a four-man panel of former stars Shane Horgan, Christian Cullen, Serge Betsen and Stefan Terblanche, the shortlist will go to a vote at the World Rugby Awards in London on November 1.
World Rugby Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “We have been lucky enough to witness a few fantastic tries during 2015 and these tries are testament to rugby’s character-building values of teamwork and enjoyment”.
Savea will feature in the final where the All Blacks play the Wallabies at Twickenham.
There’s a good spread of competitions with three from this year’s World Cup, and one each from the Pacific Nations Cup, Six Nations and World Cup warm-up matches.
The first had him steaming on to a sublime offload from Daniel Carter.
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Debaty’s try is another from the RBS Six Nations, scored in France’s game against England. A few quick handling among the Japanese backs creating the angle for winger Kotaro Matsushima to slice through and release Goromaru.
