Monday 19 December 2016 20:44, UK
The season to be merry is almost upon us. For that reason this is my final column of the year.
What with family over from Australia, festivities and the King George at Kempton Park, next Monday has been booked off...so merry Christmas and happy New Year.
For this reason I am going to cast the mind back and recall a few of the highlights of the year.
1. Rugby man of the year could be no other than Eddie Jones. Winning the Grand Slam was a good start but only a start. The 3-0 series win in Australia was the highlight while four straight wins in November cemented England as the world's second most consistent team.
There is much more to come and there will be need to be because this looks set to be the best Six Nations for years - not that this is necessarily saying a great deal.
2. The obvious fixture that draws the eye is the final match of the competition when Ireland host England.
Ireland have not been as consistent as England in 2016 but having beaten Australia, South Africa away - everyone beats them outside South Africa - and New Zealand, they enter the New Year in confident mood.
Eddie Jones may have been the man of the rugby year but Joe Schmidt produced the team performance of 2016 in Chicago.
Ireland's first-ever win against the All Blacks was an inspiring moment for Ireland and encouragement for the rest of the world. New Zealand can be beaten…
3. But not often. Their winning run came to an end but the furious response emphasised the pride that goes with the ability possessed by this group of players.
Steve Hansen has not only survived the international retirement of some of New Zealand's most experienced and finest internationals, he has taken the team on and up another level.
No team is unbeatable but this team was beginning to look pretty close to it until the green wave overwhelmed them. They have the odd weakness but they are still the best rugby team I have ever seen.
It is going to need a special effort from the Lions to repeat the heroics of 1971 but with Ireland and England to the fore there is some hope, despite all the odds, playing wise and logistical, being against them.
4. Staying with New Zealand, the very positivity of the way they play have asked questions about some of the game's oldest mantras.
One of them is that you cannot win Test matches without a goal kicker. The Kiwis have discarded that and selected the extremely erratic boot of Beauden Barrett. The boot may be erratic but the rest of his game has been anything but.
Consistently brilliant, Barrett's hard running at the gain line has changed the dynamics of the sport, at least for the moment. Tries have been raining down like never before although Ireland closed him down in Chicago.
Two weeks later he was back to his best in Dublin. If Aaron Smith can stay focused on his rugby, the Lions are going to have their work cut out at half-back next summer.
5. As New Zealand have risen, South Africa have plummeted, reaching their low point with defeat against Italy in Florence.
The value of the rand, political interference and plain dumb rugby thinking have played their parts in what has been a depressing year for the world's traditionally second most powerful nation.
6. To club level and Saracens claim pride of place in the northern hemisphere with an astonishing year.
Mark McCall has done a superb job, carrying on the innovative early work of Brendan Venter. They never looked like slipping up as they powered to the English and European double.
Now they have equalled the longest winning streak of 13 games and while the Scarlets' victory against Toulon showed the west Wales team to be one of Britain's improving sides, it would take a brave man to tip them ending the run in the New Year.
7. In the PRO12 2016 will ever be remembered as the year of Connacht. The last kick win to beat the Wasps was a memorable moment to go with the home victory against Toulouse but the demolition of Irish giants, Leinster, at Murrayfield was the summit of their season, a game that brought smiles to the faces of the great and good of Galway and neutrals alike.
Pat Lam will be sorely missed in the west of Ireland but the welcome will be warm in the western parts of England.
8. How about a few words of praise for World Rugby, as the International Rugby Board they seemed about as inadequate for changed times as the United Nations. But with the arrival of Bill Beaumont and Agustin Pichot we are seeing serious attempts to address the integrity of the game in numerous ways from availability to injuries.
The blinkers are off and there has been some far sighted thinking. It has been a good year for World Rugby.
9. Hats off to Fiji too and their Olympic Gold medal; here, however, World Rugby came across at times as a little too overwhelmed by the aura of the Olympic movement.
Viewing figures for sevens do not necessarily equate to newcomers lacing up their boots and if they do, it might not be with a mind to the far more rounded version of the sport.
James Davies has a silver medal at home somewhere but I reckon his team-mates who inflicted defeat on Toulon on Sunday achieved more.
10. It would be remiss to end the year without a moment to recall the career of the late Anthony Foley and the magnificent manner in which family, friends and Munster responded to the tragic loss of this warm hearted and inspiring rugby figure.
Thank you all for regularly reading this column and supporting this sport that can be infuriating at times but a thing of beauty when played at its best.
Happy Christmas and a fine 2017 to you one and all,
Stuart Barnes
