{"id":9161,"date":"2012-03-21T15:23:03","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T13:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/rugby-wales-lydiate-named-player-of-six-nations\/"},"modified":"2012-03-21T15:23:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T13:23:03","slug":"rugby-wales-lydiate-named-player-of-six-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-wales-lydiate-named-player-of-six-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Wales’ Lydiate named player of Six Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mitch Phillips<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, March 21<\/span> (Reuters) – Wales flanker Dan Lydiate has
\nbeen named the Six Nations’ player of the tournament to round
\noff a wonderful championship for Warren Gatland’s team who last
\nSaturday secured their third grand slam in eight years.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 30,000 public votes were registered, almost double
\nthat of last year, as Lydiate triumphed from a 12-man shortlist
\nthat included three of his Wales team mates.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Lydiate collected more than 25 percent of the vote, while
\nIreland flyhalf Jonathan Sexton was second with 12 percent and
\nItaly captain Sergio Parisse third, with 11.6.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Lydiate was man of the match in the wins over Scotland and
\nFrance, where his crunching tackles and huge appetite for work
\nfrom the blindside position have turned him into a real crowd
\nfavourite.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I am really surprised to be honest. I am genuinely chuffed
\nto bits,” Lydiate said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It tops off an amazing competition for me and for Wales. To
\nbe part of such a talented Wales team and win the grand slam in
\nCardiff on Saturday was incredible in itself but to then be
\nvoted Player of the Championship is absolutely unbelievable.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is a massive honour to win, especially given the quality
\nof the other players up for the award.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The player of the championship award shortlist was compiled
\nfrom the man of the match winners, awarded by the host
\nbroadcasters for the first four weekends.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

England, who finished second in the championship and won
\nfour of their five games, did not have a single player on the
\nshortlist. \t<\/p>\n

(Editing by Ken Ferris)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mitch Phillips LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) – Wales flanker Dan Lydiate has been named the Six Nations’ player of the tournament to round off a wonderful championship for Warren Gatland’s team who last Saturday secured their third grand slam in eight years. More than 30,000 public votes were registered, almost double that of last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}