Sport Editors' Blog

"For the first time, the award winner is being decided by the listeners of BBC Radio Five Live, with a vote taking place over this weekend from Friday."

So it will be down to who has the best internet campaign.

I can't see either of the other teams mobilising their support as well as St. Helens (and Rugby League in general) have.

I am suprised Reading FC weren't nominated. They lost only 2 games all season, got promoted to the Premiership with a record tally of points (and are in 8th place with virtually the same side), scored over a hundred goals.

Of course they didn't do this in the top division of the game, but you can only do the best you can in the division you are in!

is this Carl Doran the same one that worked on 'Question of Sport' ?

I listened to the 'panel of experts' on 5-Live last night. Whilst it was an interesting chat, it hardly came across as a very comprehensive or informed assessment. Members of the panel openly admitted that they had little or no knowledge of some of the sports being considered, yet alone the individual teams. The amateur way this has been approached was evidenced by the fact that the coxless four mens rowing team was only considered as an after-thought in the last 30 secs of the programme. I don't agree on these awards being decided by popular vote (the best known, rather than the best win) - but if it has to be decided this way, why limit to just three nominations anyway?

Why weren't Reading Football Club nominated after our fantastic achievements? We got a record points total of 106 points, won promotion in the quickest possible time (25th March) and have since adjusted to the Premiership with ease.

Not very happy!

International team of the year:
The All Blacks.

International coach of the year:
Graham Henry

International sports personality:
Richie McCaw.

A comment on the individual who recommended Reading football club as sports team of the year. To consider Reading is a ridiculous suggestion. All the teams nominated made their achievements at the top of their respective club sports; Reading won the second tear of the English football league.

The Ryder cup side should walk this vote. Sussex are St Helen's achievements and minor compared to the feet acomplisged by Europes golfers. The Ryder Cup was on a world stage, it would have to be a major accomplishment such as a treble or being the worlds best side, which St Helens clearly arn't to win this. if it was down to a panel, Sussex and St Helens may of had a chance but the public should crown the golfers with ease!!!!!!!

Absolutley agree with post 8. The European Ryder Cup acheivement is on a completley different stage and level to the other two. They are still massive acheivements but as a public vote it's hard to see them getting the same support as The Ryder Cup Team, along with the fact that golf has an ever growing popularity and media coverage. Also will be great if Darren Clarke could take the main prize, I undersatnd that it's sports personality of the YEAR but he has been one of the strongest Europeans in almost all of the recent Ryder Cups, and won titles againgt the world's best, including beating Tiger head to head.

While Sussex CC's and the golfers' achievements are to be lauded, St Helens are clearly the team of the year. In a physical sport they dominated every competition they entered, playing with skill and style.
Although they won plenty of individual trophies, Saints victories were not purely due to one or two players efforts. Every team member contributed, from the senior players to the young lads just coming out of the academy. Surely the team of the year?

p.s. Shouldn't the EUROPEAN golf team be in the overseas competition...?

Mr Warner almost everything you say in support of St Helens also applies to Sussex CC (and most also apply to the Ryder cup team), the only difference being that cricket isn't a physical (by which I presume you mean contact) sport, it is far from obvious that they are more worthy than Sussex.

I take it that, if Sussex win, their twelfth man, the weather, will be given the full recognition he deserves?

Sussex C C is clearly the team of the year, if only for the fact that after more than 100 years of effort they have now won the County Championship twice in the last few years.Add to that the thrilling win in the C&G final, meaning that the double was a major achievement by what is still a small club.

Re: Mr Williams comments (no. 8)

You state that St Helens clearly aren't the Worlds Best Side. What evidence do you have to support this assumption? In February St Helens get to Play the Australian Champions the Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Final. The last time the two sides met for the same title was in 2001 and lo and behold, Saints won.

St Helens RLFC have not only won The Challenge Cup Final, The League Leaders Title and the Super League Grand Final, they only lost 4 games all season, by 1, 2, 3 and 4 points.

In addition to this Paul Wellens was named as Man of Steel, The Players Player of the Year, The Rugby League Writer Assosiation Player of The Year, The Harry Sunderland Trophy of the Year, Sean Long won the Lance Todd Trophy, James Graham was named Young Player of The Year, and Daniel Anderson won the Coach of The Year Award. Oh and the Under 18's Acadamy side were crowned as champions too!

I am really disappointed to see that the England Women's Rugby team didn't make the final three. Winning the 6 Nations for the first time in 3 years, and just missing out in the World Cup final to New Zealand in probably one of the best games of rugby ever. Its a shame that sports that don't receive much TV coverage don't get much of a look in at these events.

The Rider cup win was not a great achievement; Europe has walked the contest in recent years and the US failed to turn up. Sussex CC, unlike St Helen's, are a small cricket club, who have conquered nearly everything (misses out on the 3rd competition by 1 victory). This is a David over goliath victory which should surely result in them winning the team of the year. Rugby League, as far as I'm concerned, is a sport concentrated only in the North and doesn't represent the nation as cricket does. Sussex deserve to win!

Reading FC - shocking omission from the final three. Always a likely outcome with Arsenal & Chelsea 'celebrity' fans on the panel with a lack of knowledge of matters outside the elite. You have failed to recognise one of the greatest 'team' efforts in football for a very long time. No big stars, just a great team. What a shame!

I too listened to the nomination discussion on Rado 5 Live last night.

I did think in theory a public vote was a good idea.

But the whole idea was spoiled by the small panel, which occasionally showed bias, often sheer ignorance, being allowed to limit the public vote to a shortlist of 3 only.

eg. not Chelsea, partly because there were at least 2 Arsenal supporters on the panel, one of whom openly made clear he could never support their nomination.

eg. not Gretna, because as was said, it's a nice story, but it's Scottish football so doesn't really count.

eg. not the coxless four team, because oops we forgot about them, anyway it's not an Olympics year.

I repeat why allow the public only to vote on 3. Elsewhere, the BBC have flagged up how great it is that they are giving the public a choice of 10 this year instead of just 6, as before, in the individual award.

Next year, please, a more knowledgeable panel, eg. sports pundits and / or journalists and more choices, say 6.

Give the public a true choice !

In relation to team of the year were Munster considered.? They won the Heineken Cup finally after years of disappointment, which is a testament to perseverance and real will to win.
More than that, look what they brought to the competition in terms of colour and all those fans, who force their opponents to play matches in bigger stadia.

Re Richard Warner, Post 10 :

I think you will find that the Ryder Cup victory was not due to just one or two players' efforts.

The facts are that ALL 12 players played on ALL 3 days. ALL 12 players scored, in fact ALL 12 players scored on the very first day.

I believe this may have been the first time ever that this was the case from either team. A truelly team effort.

PS : And please don't get too pernickety. As far as I am aware, Britain and Ireland are part of Europe, and anyway 8 out of the 12 players came from the British Isles.

I listened with interest to the programme last night, and was astounded at the ignorance of the members of the panel whose lack of all round sporting knowledge was all too evident.

By all means have a number of people to narrow down the list, but make sure their knowledge is broad enough to give their decision some credence.

I believe that the Ryder Cup team would be the least deserving of the three, as their opposition was very moderate. Sussex would be my choice, for their outstanding achievement on limited resources.

Ulster, the Celtic League champions were briefly considered.

Munster, the champions of the much more prestigious Heiniken Cup were not.

I am presuming this is undoubtably because it is only UK teams that are considered.

At least the Ryder Cup team is half from UK, the other half from the Republic of Ireland ( 2 ) and the rest of the Europe.

Golfers will absolutely walk this for the simple reason that many sports 'fans' will be unaware of the other achievements.

As football dominates TV/newspaper and internet coverage there is little recognition for the achievements of others.

As an international event, the golf just about competes, but not so the cricket and although the rugby league is shown by the BBC, the media tend to ignore any achievements.

To the person who suggested that Reading FC should not be worthy of consideration because they did not achieve anything at the highest level of sport, the award is for 'team of the year' not 'biggest spenders at the highest level of their sport'. Reading FC smashed all records, spending relatively little money, thanks to Steve Coppell's expertise at putting together a team of individuals and getting them to consistently perform well beyond the sum of their individual talents.

Still what else should we expect from an organisation that has an award for 'Sports Personality of the Year' and then consistently presents it to individuals with little or no personality!

Tis a pity that the senior English teams have let themselves down. However, it does highlight the Anglo-centric view of the BBC and its paid mouthpieces!

Hi
What about the womens rugby team World Cup final, brilliant game or is it just womens sport ! Come on !

I listened to the debate last night and was also staggered by the ignorance and obvious bias shown by most of the panel.

I am also glad (as a Chelsea fan) that Chelsea were not placed in the final three places as the amount of vitriolic comments against a team that has supposedly "bought the league" (like MUFC have spent nothing over the last few years) is reaching ridiculous proportions (note the OTT feature by Michael Henderson in today's Telegraph) and Chelsea would have votes against them purely due to who they are.

My knowledge of some sports is limited to a passing interest, as most people, but it is clear that the Ryder Cup team should be red hot favourites to pick up this trophy.

"Golfers will absolutely walk this for the simple reason that many sports 'fans' will be unaware of the other achievements. "

I'm not so sure about that, although golf may well get the majority of casual fans' votes rugby league has a dedicated and vociferous fanbase that will see this as an opportunity to get some recognition for their sport.

If you look at these blogs, any discussion of SPOTY starts off fairly spread before RL fans arrive en-mass and swamp the board with support for St Helens, I suspect the public vote will go the same way.

Either way Sussex are rank outsiders.

I have to totally disagree with Post 8.
Even though I am a golf fan why should the Ryder Cup Team walk it?
How can you argue about a world stage when only a handful of nations were represented, one of which was so poor it hardly made for a nailbiting competition. Add to this the fact that the Ryder Cup is played over a few days and not months as in the other teams' cases then surely Sussex and St Helens are more worthy of the prize. Given that the sucess of Sussex is largely due to its geographical position i.e the weather, the award has surely got to go to St Helens.
Post 16 says that Sussex have conquered nearly everything – well there you go – NEARLY.
St Helens HAS won everything, not nearly, not almost – EVERYTHING there is to win in its sport St Helens HAS won!

I am glad that Sussex CCC has made the final 3.
What makes Sussex CCC achievement of the double (County Champions and C&G Champions) so special is the team is a team. There are no prima donnas or current internationals. The players play for each other, when down they were not out, they just kept going. Each player gave his all. When there was an injury, his replacement tried his utmost.
I can not speak for St Helens but it would be interesting to see how many of their players are current internationals.
As for the Ryder cup team they are all stars representing their "country" (In this case Europe).
I urge everyone to vote for Sussex the worthy winners.
David

If your talking about Champions, how about a northern Rugby Union team breaking the hold which teams like Leicester, Bath, Wasps and Gloucester have dominated for the best part of 16 years, minus the year that Newcastle freakishly took the title!

What amazes me is how something positive can be time and time again turned into a knock-athon! All of the teams considered were excellent, i absolutley loved the golf victory and Sussex had an excellent season.

But seeing the very impressive list of personal and team awards St.Helens won, along with the amazing statistic of having only lost 4 games with a combined total of 10 points means i think this kind of dominance in a competitive team sport should be rewarded- northern or not!

The Ryder Cup winning team? Winners of a two horse race? On that basis we may as well include them on the short list every two years and Oxford and Cambridge every year. As for Sussex, if they had won every trophy available to them and their players virtually every individual trophy available to them then OK, they'd deserve it. That leaves Saints out in front again!

Dave

How can the golfers even get nominated, isn't the BBC team award supposed to be for BRITISH teams ?
The Ryder cup team represents EUROPE and not Britain.

The Ryder cup boys should win overseas team of the year but not the main team of the year award.

Saints all the way for mine, they dominated Rugby League this year like no other team in Super League history.

whoo! glad to see saints in the top 3!

post 29 makes a good point about the lack of internationals in sussex;s team compared to saints team, but that should not take away from the fact that saints were the dominant team in a highly competitive league from start to finish.

personally i would be happy to see either sussex or saints win as they both worked hard all season, and in saints case 11 months, to win their respective competitions.

The ryder cup team however competed in a 2 team event for just 3 days! to say that they deserve the award ahead of saints and sussex is nonsense.

Come on you saints!

This is an interesting shortlist and not one I'd necessarily disagree with. Anyone with an interest in a wide range of sports would probably have come up with a similar list - Sussex's achievements in doing the one day/championship double are impressive, to say the least, while the European Ryder Cup victory was something celebrated by the whole country (and many in mainland Europe, too).

Personally, though, I think St Helens have the best case. I am not some kind of rugby league nutcase (though I do follow my local team, Bristol Sonics, over the summer), nor am I a Saints supporter. However, this year they have been outstanding - the best team in the Super League by a country mile. Their dominance was almost utter. What's more, the rugby they played was out of this world - thrillingly open and expansive, quick and poundingly physical... nigh on perfect. They would be worthy winners - as would either of the other shortlisted candidates.

St. Helens internationals
Paul Wellens
Ade Gardner
Willie Talau
Jamie Lyon
Francis Meli
Leon Pryce
Sean Long
Jason Cayless
Keiron Cunningham - Retired but would walk into any side at the HIGHEST level. best hooker in the world.
James Graham
Lee Gilmour
Jon Wilkin

12/13 players have represented their international sides this year. Jason Hooper hasn't. Throughout the season you have also had James Roby, Vinnie Anderson play international rugby, Paul Sculthorpe is the GB captain but unlucky with injuries for the last two years, and Paul Anderson who retired from international rugby last year. So out of 18 players 17 have played international rugby. St. Helens are by far the most successful team this year and deserve to win the trophy.

And the winner is St Helens.

It is already a travesty that Paul Wellens has not been shortlisted for the sports personality of the year.
If St Helens do not win the team of the year then this will further highlight a lack of recognition for a sport (and a team who has been a consistent credit and ambassador for this sport) that operates at the very peak of profesionalism.

Apart from that, as has been pointed out very ably by Comment 14, St Helens (at team, academy, individual and coach level) have quite simply won EVERYTHING there is to win in the domestic field this year - there was nothing more for us to win !!

St Helens deserve to win this on merit.

Re: Will Comments (no 16)

You state that rugby league is only a sport played in the north, well I'm sorry, but what about Harlequins? They're from London, which I believe is in the south. And Les Catalans is a team from France, and I'm fairly sure that isn't in the north of England neither. St Helens have won absolutely everything there is to be won, including all the individual awards, which no other team in the whole of the country can claim they have done. Give St Helens their just rewards for a fantastic season of breathtaking rugby league. VOTE ST HELENS!

St.Helens are the most complete team in Great Britain in 2006. The Ryder Cup team is EUROPEAN not GB so should be disqualified...not that its going to happen. Vote Saints!

I think the panel came to the correct conclusion - I can't think of another team who deserve to be nominated above Saints, Sussex or the Ryder Cup team.

I'd probably go for Saints over Sussex as Saints won everything possible (inc. individual honours) and did so convincingly with a style and flair not witnessed for years in their sport.

Sussex have been brilliant but they can't say they have won everything and they can't say they won their competitions with ease.

I keep seeing Readings name mentioned. Reading deserve congratulations for a fantastic year but team of the year? Get Real! You don't get team of the year by winning the second tier of your sport. How did you do in the cup comps?

Personally, I feel that the award should go to either Sussex or St Helens. My reason for this is that both these teams have competed as a team over a full season. I have nothing against the Ryder Cup team, but it's a short competition made up of golfers from varying nationalities who predominantly compete on an individual basis. Going from point 23 it sounds like St Helen's have made a clean sweep across the board in their competition - so I would say St Helens.

I'm not well up on my cricket but I haven't heard Sussex mentioned as much as the other counties so I guess there's is a major achievement also (cricket fans please forgive my ignorance of your sport).

Richie McKaw (NZ All Blacks), international sports personality.

Sussex CCC for the team of the year, surely!?

Cricket is a great sport and Sussex have done fantastically well in securing the title , but it is a sport that that is weather dependant and that can be the difference between 1st and 2nd place if one game is curtailed due to rain.Rugby League goes on if it's snowing or the sun is cracking the flags and St Helens have played in all conditions and mastered them and their opponents this year.All domestic cups mopped up with relative ease and playing with a style that is not easily replicated by their closest rivals in Super League have shown that Winning and Winning in Style can be done consistently.

Yeah, right it wouldn't matter if St Helens had won all the Rugby League title, the football, the golf, and the cricket they wouldn't be in with a chance of winning this award. The BBC has such an anti-League pro-Union bias that is hard to credit in these modern times.

Although it would be nice to see certain BBC presenters forced to mention League as the very word seems to stick in their throats.

I am writing this from a slightly different angle as a sports team is also the sum of its parts and one thing not mentioned so far is the community and the supporters. Golf is ostensibly not a team sport and the 'team' element is manufactured for one event. The difference with rugby league is the spectators and the Saints fans are an intrinsic part of that team. I actually live in Knowley Road opposite the gates of the rugby ground and can state that match night is actually a pleasure. There is never any trouble, it is a true family occasion and very enjoyable. The ground was recently used for a football match of 2,000 and the contrast could not have been different. So I think Saints definitely deserve the vote.

Chris number 42 you are spot on. St.Helens have been awesome in their sport this year swept the board and have (i think) 9 British internationals in the side this year most of which have been brought through by saints. Not only has the 1st team been awesome this year the youth teams have been fantastic

Sussex have to win it. With sich a small squad of players and budget it has been an amazing achievement. Credit to St.Helens but they have more resources from the start! Sussex have gone from despair to the top over the last few years, and the spirit of the side is second to none, paired with the close-knit community.

PS - why do all northerners have to mention the rain!!! same story over and over...

St. Helens have been one of the most dominant rugby teams in this country for several years culminating in their complete dominance of the 2006 rugby season.

Sussex CC had a good season but Saints had a great season.

As for the Ryder cup squad they are a european confection and not really a team as such, marvellous as their win was. Saints and Sussex did well over a whole season against a variety of opposition. I applaud the efforts of Sussex CC but for me St. Helens have been the greatest and most dominant sporting team in this country this year.

16. At 01:51 PM on 28 Nov 2006, Will wrote: "Rugby League, as far as I'm concerned, is a sport concentrated only in the North and doesn't represent the nation as cricket does. Sussex deserve to win!"

I am amazed how people put themselves on offer regarding their lack of sporting knowledge. I live in Hertfordshire, hardly 'Up North', and have a Superleague club, a National League 2, National League 3 and numerous amateur clubs within an hours drive of me. Rugby League is a national sport, and St Helens deserve to win.

COME ON YOU SAINTS !!

its about time we deserved some national recognition!

i hope all the RL fans vote for the saints, and show the rest of the UK what a great sport they are missing out on !!

ps - paul wellens should have made the 10 for personality of the year as well

i did not listen to the programme, so am unaware of who was considered, but the shortlist seems to - as usual - only consider the mainstream sports. The Ryder Cup is a three day, European event nominated every other year regardless of the quality of the opposition, which incidently barely acknowledged the event. St Helens and Sussex enjoyed good seasons but both competed only domestically - surely you should have done something on a global scale to win the award. Also, all the best cricketers hardly play county cricket, so Sussex did not even beat England's best players, yet alone the world's.
In comparison, in several Olympic sports, Britain have world champion competitors in sports which are globally better participated than Rugby League, Golf and Cricket. The new Coxless Four Rowing team have won World golds in 2005 and 2006, as well as 6 out of 6 World Cup victories. In Badminton, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms won GBs first World Gold for 23 years as well as Commonwealth Gold to go with their 2004 Olympic silver. Britain have 2 World Champion pairings in Sailing in the 49er and 470 classes, but for me the winners should be the British Swimming squad.They won 37 medals (15 Golds) at the Commonwealth Games, before winning the team trophy at the Europeans with 13 medals (2 golds.)They also are fully representative of all parts of Britain and have a number of competitors ranked in the world's top 5. All this after a disappointing last two years culminating in the retirement of almost half of the 2004 squad. They now have a mixture of young competitors (Simon Burnett, Kirsty Balfour) and more experienced ones (James Gibson, Becky Cooke) I am not a swimmer or a particular follower of the sport, but to me it seems that these sportsmen have done more to deserve the award than any Ryder Cup Golfer.

The St Helens rugby team gets my vote. I am new to rugby and watching the Saints team play in the Super League and the Challenge cup this season has been an absolute pleasure.

Sussex CCC win this award hands down for me. Small on resources,massive on team spirit and anyone who followed their progress this summer in the County Championship and the C&G trophy will agree, be worthy winners. Not taking away the strength of the opposition from the golfers and rugby stars, the culmination of the most exciting County Championship for years and the most exciting Lords final ever deserve reward.

Would have to disagree by a long way with everyone that says The Ryder Cup victory isn't as big an acheivement becasue it is only played over three days. Eligable players plan a whole 12 months of their competative lives around qualifying for this event, and the captains a lot longer. If your planning on getting that picky then The England Rugby Team quite deservadley won this prize for their World Cup Victory in 2003, but they played 8ish games (can't be bother to look it up) at 80 minutes each, one with extra time, that is no where as long as three full days of golf. As far as that point is concerned you can't make this about time spent on the playing field, becasue that also is offensive to all the time that St. Helens and Sussex put in planning and practicing just as the Ryder Cup Team and The England Team. Unfortunatley this is bound to come down to a popularity contest and the golfers have that won by a long way. I watch plewnty of sports and actually attend a pretty good sports college (massive Union fans here), and check the bbc sport pages quite often, but couldn't have told you before i booted my pc up this morning who won the Rugby League or Cricket titles. There are too many people who are interested in this award that don't know enough about the acheivements that St. Helens and Sussex made.

P.S. Vote for the Ryder Cup Team, not only is it a fantastic display of team work and acheivement, but some of these players have helped win this title 5 out of the last 6 times, and its a trophy that the US used to own.

The Ryder cup team won a one off match in a two horse race! hardly a hard slog compared to the others

St Helens are the obvious choice. As a season ticket holder i am obviously biased but name a team that can say they have won everything possible in a season? And it is literally everything. After watching the Tri-Nations series, it was St Helens players that shined in the 1st win over Aus in Australia for what 27 years? St Helens... there is just no other option.

I think Sussex deserve it for the squad size they have they kept arguably the strongest team in county cricket (Lancashire) behind them.
And they played like champions as well I remember watching them play Kent and nearly through it away, but showed the fighting qualities winning teams have to pull through.

It has to be Sussex by the sea if this award is for the best TEAM. It is team spirit at Sussex which has created a squad of stars - not money, media recognition or test ground pulling power. Sussex are the proof that the small boys can take on the big boys where there is vision and belief. A vote for Sussex is a vote for the spirit of sport. Vote Sussex.

In response to comment 50 from Daz, its great to see that someone has a brain and actually recognises a great sports team whether they are from 'Up North' or not. Its about time people get their heads out of their arses and just take a look at some of the 40+ games Saints have played and I bet my bottom dollar they will be impressed. In addition to this the RFL are doing a great job in promoting the game all over the nation and this is proving a great success and is backed up by the teams mentioned by Daz.

NB Will, you state that cricket is played througout the nation- correct, but how many people actually attend these matches. I assume it was the Geography classes you didnt attend at schooll!!

St Helens rugby league are the only team that genuinely deserve to win this award.
How refreshing would it be to have a fantastic & entertaining but unrecognised & discriminated team sport like Rugby League take the top award. It's more than about time.
I urge all RL & sports fans to vote for St Helens not only for their amazing achievments in 2006 but also to show the
bias media there is more to sport in this country than football.

Four Comments on Team of the year:

1 - It was a sheer fluke that I came across the Five Live program that decided the top 3.

2 - The method used to select the top 3 was amateurish in the extreme (panel members were not representative and comments lacked objectivity).

3 - Why limit to 3 teams, 5 would offset the limitions of the panel and would allow at least 1 minority sport and a once in a lifetime achievement to be included. The debate around rider & horse was an irrelevant distraction. Teams are about human synergy.

4. I must declare a slight bias, but Gretna's achievement is what dreams are made of - reaching a final of a national cup competition and taking the top division team to extra time will not happen again in my lifetime.

NEXT YEAR LET'S SHORTLIST TO AT LEAST 5 TEAMS!

St Helens.

Credit to all teams nominated, but in my book it has to be St Helens.

Well, so far I counted up the votes on this discussion. It is as follows:
St Helens 24
Sussex 10
The Ryder Cup Team 5

In my view the St Helens team should win it. As they say you can only beat what is put in front of you. What you can also say is the teams that did beat them didn't beat them comprehensively (only beaten by 1,2,3 & 4 point margins!!)

Sussex have also done fantastically well this season, but weren't as dominant in their sport. As for the Ryder Cup team - its Team of the YEAR, not Team of the Weekend, plus they are playing the same opposition every 2 years, plus over half the team is NON-BRITISH. Still a good win over the Americans, but you can not compare this over two seasoned teams who play different oppositions each time. After reading all the above, I think we should open this up to six teams.

St Helen
Sussex
Ryder Cup Team (if you must)
Reading (they can only beat what's placed in front of them)
Badminton Team (On top of the World)
Coxless Fours (Again best in the World-why are they not allowed to be voted for??)

If they are the best in the World at what they do, or dominated their league, BBC please let us be allowed to vote for them.

Womens Rugby Team must also get a big mention. They came to a whisker of beating a team (New Zealand) who I don't think have been beaten for many years. To me thats impressive.

I would also love to see St Helens play the Australian Rugby League team. Anyone have a view on this?? Just see how great they are, that's all.

Re Rhodi Williams' post.

You say it would take a "treble winning" to beat the Ryder Cup team to the title. Well I'm afraid St Helens did win a treble and everything else in their path too, and in February I'm sure when St Helens meet Brisbane Broncos to battle for the World Championship they'll win that too, because as you were too quick to dismiss, St Helens are probably our the best team in the world! Also no less than nine St Helens players represented their respective nations in this autums tests.

St Helens rugby league team.
Record speaks for it's self.
Every team award and every individual award.Playing open and exciting rugby but defending equally
as good when required.
Most of all , the lads are all friends off the field , certainly the team of the year.

Sports ambassador of the year and gutsiest performance award - Ouija Board. What a star!

St Helens should win this award as they achieved the grand slam at the highest level of the sport.

They finished as league leaders, Grand Final winners and Challenge Cup winners. Their coach and players managed a clean sweep of the individual awards.

If St Helens don't win this prize then a Rugby League team will never win it!!

And strictly speaking the Ryder Cup team is a European not a British team.

Although all three nominated teams deserve to be there, especially the Ryder cup team, I am disappointed the panel didn't take the opportunity to promote a "minor" sport in the form of Basketball.
Newcastle Eagles won all four major tournements in British basketball last season. Surely that at least merits a nomination.
If the best team is the team that has dominated their sport then the Eagles are that.
Just because a sport isn't on prime time tv, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

"Rugby League, as far as I'm concerned, is a sport concentrated only in the North and doesn't represent the nation as cricket does. Sussex deserve to win!"

Whose nation does cricket represent? Certainly not mine. Apologies for not realising this was the English sports personality of the year competition.

As stated before St Helens won everything possible......all 3 trophy's plus EVERY individual honour available. But the consistency they showed over the year is evident in the four games they lost over the whole season. They were lost by only 1,2,3 & 4 points respectively. Take into account the game lost with the biggest margin was one week before a major final & Saints sent their 'B' side consisting mainly of youngsters from the academy, to France (plus they lost this match to a try in the last minute of the match). This shows the magnitude of their achievments throughout the year. I doubt if this feat will be equalled again in pretty much any sport.

Thanks Andy (Broughton) for your reply (37) to the number of internationals playing for St Helens RL club - 17 out of 18 players.

My point is that Sussex CCC had one international (Rana Naveed from Pakistan - who was released to play for Pakistan during the summer) for part of the season. For Sussex to achieve so much this season with a small squad as oppossed to the might of Lancashire a rich club with internationals is what I believe the Team competition is all about.

Dare I say it a team packed with internationals should win trophys, if not why not.

This poll is accross all sports played in the UK.

David

StHelens deserve to win the award as they won the grand slam which is the highest accolade in british rugby league.

Even as a Wigan fan, I would vote for St Helens. They have dominated RL this year and fully deserve to win.

Whilst the Ryder Cup victory was massive - how can you vote for a team from a competition where there are only 2 teams in it?? What next - Oxford or Cambridge up for the best team?

Let's face it, the US Ryder Cup team were not at the races.

Im a big Wigan fan and as much as it hurts me to say I think Saints should win, the sport on a whole deserves some recognition in what other sport do you find the players playing with broken bones because they need that win! Certainly not Cricket. Just for those of you who dont know Rugby League has many division which amazingly has southern and scottish teams in it.

St.Helens should win team of the year - they have the best credentials of any of the 3 teams nominated one only has to look at the cases logically

Sussex are clearly the team of the year. Tiny club win big and nearly won 3 trophies. The golfers are great but beat very little in an event that has become almost as one-sided as it was when it was USA v Britain and Ireland, but in reverse.

I'm afraid the same has to be said of St Helens. If St Helens, why not Chelsea because there was no real competition.

As a Saints fan it makes me proud to see so many people supporting us in the bid for Team of the Year.

Let's hope that their nomination will raise the profile of RL in general.

You never know, England winning the Federation Cup next year may even get a mention on the BBC News.

Good Luck Saints

Paul @ #70

you aren't brave enough to say it but I assume you are a Scot. I live in Aberdeenshire which has the highest number of cricket players per head of any county in Britain. Scotland have qualified for the cricket world Cup. (Just in case you are Irish, they qualified too!)

How many Rugby League teams are there in Scotland?

In the end it's all down to money. The phonecalls make money for the Beeb. Why can we not just return to the old way of send in a post card? No shortlist, you chose who you wanted and didn't have a nomination forced on you by reducing the options. Of course, the option is always not to vote. Best team? Europe? Remember they had to change the rules of the Ryder Cup to bring in the Europeans as GB/NI got slaughtered every 2 years. Sussex? Good point made about not playing against class opposition. Saints? a minority sport in this country,have not been tested against the world's best.Number 1, got to be The All Blacks.

SAINTS!!! That's the only choice there should be! Here are the reasons why I think they should win!

1. They did a clean sweep of the trophies!
2. They have more than 10 internationals in the team.
3.It's about time rugby league got some recognition because for too long rugby union has been the only thing on the BBC viewers minds because that's all the majority show!
4.Rugby League for me has to be the best sport in the world.

As you can probably tell from this I'm a die-hard Saints fan! if you weren't one, how can you not be now after this season's display! Second to none!

COME ON YOU SAINTS! TREBLE WINNERS '06

I'm not sure how the Ryder Cup players can ever be considered as a team. They come together for three or four days every couple of years - the rest of the time they're playing as individuals. I sat glued to the box throughout that weekend and cheered every European half-point but don't let the format of the event fool you into thinking these guys play for each other other than in this very peculiar (in golfing terms) event.
If there's any justice, St Helens should walk it because of their outstanding achievements in one of the toughest sports played by man. Stand up close to the pitch and hear the hits that these guys take week-in and week-out, with great respect for the ref and on a fraction on football's prima donna wages and you can have nothing but admiration for them. St Helens' achievements are, as a team, without equal this year so vote for them and see justice done!

Will, you doufous!!! reading have been better than any other team in the country. They've set many records and set a standard, which will be extremely difficult to better!!! you need to get your facts sorted because i'm shocked aswell as many other people that Reading have not been considered for Team of the year. sort it out goofball!!

I'd go for St Helens as they have cleared up as a team and individually, but also to give rugby in whatever code some recognition. Granted that in 2003, the Rugby Union world cup result dominated the choices, but before then both rugby codes were pretty much on the sidelines. Leicester Tigers won the league 4 times in a row (that's a proper win for coming top and not the current contrived playoff process), won the European Cup and retained it (the first team to do so), and remained unbeaten at home for 5 years yet they barely got a mention. So come on St Helens.

To the Reading fan - In that case I think my cricket team should be dominated - undefeated all season! tut of course the standard of sport matters, your comments are outrageous!

St Helens would be deserving winners of the team of the year award and I sincerely hope that all rugby league fans put their tribal differences to one side and vote for the Saints. It would be appropriate if only to show that this country can boast great teams outside the established order of football,cricket and golf.It is about time that rugby league received national recognition with this prestigious award because as a team sport it provides great skill , excitment and theatre and makes great T.V especially for those who are unfortunately unable to watch live matches.

It is the British Broadcasting Corporations sports personality of the year, not the English Broadcasting Corporation. St. Helen's,Sussex & Reading are English whereas the Ryder Cup team represent all four countries of Britain, so there is no contest.

Its about time Rugby League got the recognition it deserves. Not only have St Helens dominated the league and domestic cups this year , many of their players were singled out as the true performers in the Great Britain side to tour the southern hemisphere. Wellens made a clean sweep of all domestic awards and the likes of Roby Wilkin and Gilmour all shon when utilised in the test side.

Its a pitty the world club chalenge hasnt been played yet, because if like 2000 St Helens do the trebble again, someone might just sit up and listen...

I find it quite hard to believe anyone can compare St Helens RLFC to Chelsea.

St Helens is a small northern mining town and as such does not have the vast geographical area of both the Ryder Cup Team and Sussex County in which to attract home-grown talent.

Despite this some of their biggest stars i.e Paul Wellens, Keiran Cunningham and James Roby were born and bred on the streets of the town.

They have so far won everything available to them this season and I'm sure are hoping to complete this with the World Club Challenge in Feb. All this without the millions avaiable in other sports. Their success has been achieved through community development at grass roots level.

What else can they do to be recognised at the most outstanding team of the year?

I am interested in all 3 sports, but it has to be down to either St. Helens or Sussex. How on earth can anyone vote for the winner of a one off, two horse race in which one half of the participants lack the required desire to win? That said the Ryder cup team does have some great personalities.

Sussex are worthy nominees. Like many have said they have built a real team ethic and a spirit which has been indomnitable. They have a steady mix of players who have represented their county with honour. Despite this however, St. helens are the team for me. As the dominant force of the Super League era in terms of honours won, St. Helens were unstopable this season. they crushed both finalists and lost only three games where they played a full team.

In terms of athleticsm and courage and skill, St. Helens win hands down. Perhaps the England RU team could take lessons.

st.helins DESERVE THIS AWARD FOR THE HARD WORK ALL SEASON AND NOT JUST OVER A FEW DAYS COME ON YOU SAINTS;;;;

Post 86 makes no sense whatsoever.

It says that a team should only win Sports Team of the Year if the they represent all four countries of Britain.

So in that case Liverpool FC, Celtic FC, the England cricket team or Wales rugby union team should always be ineligible. What nonsense.

st.helins DESERVE THIS AWARD FOR THE HARD WORK ALL SEASON AND NOT JUST OVER A FEW DAYS COME ON YOU SAINTS;;;;

David #72 correct me if i'm wrong but does not having many internationals actally provide somewhat of an advantage to Sussex CCC? As the players are on central contracts teams such as Lancashire will lose many of their players for large portions of the year resulting in never having a settled side?

Steve #79 Done some digging for you and there are 6 teams in the Scottish Conference with roughly 20 in total.

and on #77 I'm not sure how much people are aware but Rugby League teams operate under a salary cap meaning they cannot 'buy success.' In fact Saints have had to offload an international Vinny Anderson to my team Warrington to free up cap money.

Steve (message 79) - six teams played in the 2006 Scottish Conference League (the summer amateur rugby league competition). I think there a couple of others which play in the English leagues in the winter too. There is a Scottish national rugby league side as well (which is one win away from World Cup qualification). I'm not too sure what difference this makes to the debate, though. Does the number of cricketers in Aberdeenshire make Sussex a better team?

I suspect, as has frequently been the case in recent years, the sports given more coverage by the BBC will win out (i.e. Golf), while sports generally covered by advertising-paid-for channels (Rugby League and Cricket) will get token mentions but 'just lose out' in a close vote. Again. The key is in the 'BBC' not the 'SPotY.'
For me, all three teams are worthy winners. But I don't watch golf or cricket and have no idea how important those teams' successes are in the overall scheme of things. However, as a rugby league fan I can vouch for St Helens' achievements this year - and they deserve every plaudit going... not just for the victories, but also the manner in which they were achieved. They were simply imperious against a classy Hull side in the Grand Final and it will take a better-than-usual Brisbane Broncos side to win the World Club Challenge next year.

St Helens are by far the best team to be voted team of the year, firstly because rugby league dosent get the recognition it should, and the BBC covers all rugby union.

Not enough rugby league is shown on BBC television.

Secondly it's the hardest game in the world where the players are putting their bodies on the line week in and week out and finally what more can you ask of a team to completely sweep everything that is on offer including their acadamy set up.

So St Helens should be team of the year because they have acheived everything possible in their sport at the highest level, and also gave the viewing public very attrative and entertaining rugby.

I am suprised golf is being classed as a sport at all, pastime or hobby yes, sport never.

St.Helens are the team of the year in the UK their achievements this season have not been and possibly may never be matched.

Right, I have put forward the case for Walter Smith to be included in category for "Coach of the year"

Cmon BBC, show the rest of Britian (ie Wales,Scotland and Northern Ireland) that you are not so incredibley biased as to fill a whole section with yet more Englishmen and Women , chosen by a panel of Englishmen and Women.

But Alas I suspect to see Mourinho, Steve McLaren,Martin Jol blah blah.

The team of the year should be the team that has accomplished everything in their said sport.

I don't think anyone can argue that the team to win should be St Helens' rugby league team, they have won every honour in their game.

Nine months of gruelling contact sport putting their bodies on the line week in and week out, not 2 weeks around a golf course.

I just don't understand how anyone can compare the two - surely the team that can win all the honours at every level should be recognised with this accolade.

It's not just what the team have accomplished - they have won every individual awards as well from players through to coaching staff, and even the academy team won their own grand final.

So come on all you sports fans vote for the Saints who deserve this honour

Just to add to this nonsense about the European Ryder Cup team not being eligible to win (or shouldn't be), just two observations -

1 - The European team has won previously, so why shouldn't they be allowed to win this time.

2 - The West Indies Cricket Team won team of the year in the 60s... so this award has nothing to do with nationality.

Anyway, my vote is for Sussex - they battled against the odds for a total of 80+ full days during the summer in playing cricket - and won two competitions - one of them for just the second time in their 167 year history... and the first time they have ever won the double.

St Helens did a mighty fine job in sweeping the board, but have won a number of trophies already in their illustrious history, and I'm fairly sure they weren't written off as also-runs and unlikely to win anything at the start of their season.

for tom@80
St Helens are a Rugby LEAGUE team,
The All Blacks play Rugby UNION.
A completly different sport
saying that I think St Helens would give them a game

Saints should by rights win the team of the year. It would be a major boost for Rugby League in this country, but just remember, Wigan won it first! And that helped get rugby league some status, if Saints won it could only help matters.

I think it's agreed that Saints are the best team then by quite a majority.

Congratulations Saint Helens on winning yet another award.

It has to go to the only team to sweep all before them rather than a team which nearly won everything or a team which won a two-horse race over three days.

If St Helens don't win this award, it's a farce and a fix.

Sussex CCC should win.

They are a tiny club which has achieved massive things through sheer teamwork.

They have no money and no real stars, just a fantastic team. For instance, their best performer (Mushtaq) was nowhere until he was invigorated by the team ethic at Sussex. Everyone in the team has performed when needed throughout the season.

St Helens is a huge rugby league club. They have clearly done well and deserve great praise but given their size and financial muscle their success cannot be compared with Sussex's.

The Ryder Cup Team should not win, for a number of reasons:

1. It's not a British team (despite having a number of British players);

2. They played in a one-off match lasting 3 days;

3. The competition they won was a 2-horse race;

4. They have virtually unlimited resources with which to mount their challenge;

5. The accolade would not mean as much to this bunch of multi-millionaires as it would to the players of Sussex CCC (or for that matter St Helens RLFC).

I too listened to the debate and have to agree with the people who described it as farcical. The treatment of the rowers in particular was terrible, though fully in keeping with 5 Live's apparent view that if it's not Premiership football then it doesn't really matter.

There have been some really terrific achievments this year in both team and individual minority sports, but they'll be ignored again. I fully expect to see lots of footballers who've never won anything sat in the audience, yet people like World Enduro Champion David Knight (who recorded a perfect 16 wins from 16 races in 2006 and dominates his sport like Federer) will not get an invite.

This once great award is degenerating into a tabloid popularity contest.

Bearing in mind that the 2002 Ryder Cup team won the award at the expense of the unique achievement of the GB Olympic curling team, please don't vote for this Ryder Cup team! Sussex CCC would be some choice seeing as their appearences on BBCtv were limited to, at most, 30 seconds a night on South Today..

What people need to realise is that due to the salary cap in RL, St Helens have no more "financial muscle" than any of their nearest rivals. To discount them from the award because they are a "big" team would be absolutely ludicrous.

St.Helens is NOT a big place - in fact in 2007 St.Helens will be the smallest place (by population)represented by a Superleague team - they have done really well over many years to continue to be one of the top clubs - much of that success has come because of their committment to grassroots/schools rugby and through serving the community - because of this local work they have gained huge local support.

Reading FC should at least have got a mention. But of course we're not big or fashionable enough for that.

When we finish this season in the European places maybe someone will notice us...

C'MON URZZZ

St Helens all the way (even though i am biased)

the ryder cup team played excellent, against a team of individuals, who can't play well together.. as pointed out before, the ryder cup is really an individual game, besides the foursomes, you can afford for three or four players to be having bad days, you can't in cricket or rugby league..

i also feel sussex had a huge advantage over lancs, 1) because of the weather (they won the league on the last game because lancs was a washout) and they have am andvantage because they don't have any internationals, whereas lancs missed Flintoff (basically all year) and Anderson/Mahmood for a lot of games also..

People say Sussex are a small club, well so are St Helens.. Leeds, Wigan and even Warrington have more financial clout than St Helens, and although the salary cap is in place, the other clubs can afford to spend more money on training equipment/facilities/scouting, and a whole host of things, so this is an issue..

St Helens where so dominant this year, no-one else was near them, individual and team awards

Sussex should win. They deserve the credit for doing what they did on the resources available. But they probably won't because the other teams can call on more support to vote for them. So how exactly is that recognising genuine achievement, then?

Pity that whoever wins this, the whole process is so badly flawed that the award is fairly meaningless.

You cant call golf a sport it spoils a good walk Saints to win if they don't its fixed.

Sussex weren't even the best team in the County Championship - that was Lancashire.

Sussex CCC without a shadow of a doubt, they won the double of the best two competitions in the world,How many can say that, as for Reading FC wow what a joke it was only the Championship they one not the premier league.

It is time that we realise that even achievements in "less glamorous" sports should also be recognised.
Beeston hockey club got promoted to the premier league. And in the very first season in the premier league they are currently at the top!
Really outstanding achievement. Isn't it?

I'm a huge St Helens fan and hope they win - if it was Manchester United that had won every trophy going it would be a walk-in.

I don't follow golf or cricket, so cannot comment on why they do or do not deserve to win, but as a supporter that attended both the Challenge Cup and Grand Finals I hope the players are rewarded by finally getting the appreciation they deserve from the British public. When was the last time a rugby league team won it?!

Come on Saints!!!

St Helens all the way for me, They won all they could this year, Sussex enjoyed a lot of luck with the weather in manchester meaning Lancashire who where the better team overall during the county championship season couldnt win the league, and as for the Ryder cup team good effort but a) they are technically an overseas team and b) Europe has walked the Ryder cup in the last 3 competitions so winning again isnt that spectacular really is it?

Cricket is not decided because of the weather, it is decided on results. Sussex won 9 Championship games, Lancashire won 6.

Sussex and Lancashire also competed head to head in the C&G Final, the weather stayed away, and Sussex won.

So please avoid the red herring of the weather favouring Sussex over Lancashire !!! Sussex were the better team - period !

GOOD OLD SUSSEX BY THE SEA, GOOD OLD SUSSEX BY THE SEA, AND WE'RE GOING UP TO WIN THE CUP, FOR SUSSEX BY THE SEA!!!

As seems to be the consensus amongst posters on here, it has to be Saints all the way.

However, having a consensus of opinion is one thing, but they will only win if all the fans of "The Greatest Game" VOTE for them.

This is a massive opportunity to publicise the sport in millions of homes across the country - let's not miss out. Encourage everyone you know to VOTE SAINTS!!!

St Helens and Rugby League, at last, will get the recognition it deserves.

The teams play 28 league games, plus cup, and play off competitions, in all weathers, knocking the stuffing out of each other week in week out.

So to achieve what the SAINTS have won this season, they would be worthy winners, with Sussex second, and the Ryder Cup team third.

Even naming the Ryder Cup team as being in the top three is beyond me, surely there are other teams worthy of a mention.

'Cricket is not decided because of the weather, it is decided on results' Didn't Lancashire draw 4 more games than Sussex, primarily due to inclement weather? Didn't only 1 team beat Lancashire whereas 2 beat Sussex?

'Sussex and Lancashire also competed head to head in the C&G final and Sussex won' Didn't Lancashire beat Sussex in the CC and draw the return fixture?

Doesn't sound like dominance to me, sounds more like a close run thing with the weather having a major influence on Sussex's success.

Don't get me wrong, I have spent many a pleasant afternoon in Hove watching Sussex play (Many years ago though), but the achievements of St Helens this year were outstanding. They didn't squeeze past their opposition and have nailbiting cup finals, they demolished all before them.

As a demoralised Widnes fan, I have to admit that this year Saints are the sort of team that all teams (in all sports) should aspire to be and so win this competition hands down.

Surely the team of the year must be St. Helens. Yes, the Ryder Cup team did do well, but how can they be team of the year? The Ryder Cup itself is less than 1 week long!

St. Helens started their campaign on February 11th, and finished on October 14th.

Let's not forget that this is a very demanding sport, played at a very quick pace. Imagine doing countless shuttle runs for 80 minutes.

The guys who play are true athletes with amazing strength and endurance. Golf is a lovely walk, whereas only a handful of people in cricket are actually active at any one time.

St. Helens also do lots of work in their community, improving the sport at all levels in the local area, what a good sports team should do.

Another point, that also supports Sussex, is that they are BRITISH TEAMS!!! 17 out of 24 players for St. Helens were British in the season, thats 71%. Compare that to other teams in Britain.

Of the three, St Helens' performance over the year was the most impressive in my view.

Golfers did well, but given their recent success in the competition it was no more than expected.

As a Sussex fan, it was great to see them perform so well.

But ultimately St Helens dominated at the pinnacle of their sport.

I do think the nominations are an interesting reflection of the sporting year though.

Steve @ No79
Correct Steve, I am a Scot. Point I was making was:

Cricket is a sport linked strongly with England, in no way could it be said to be Scotland's national sport. At least in England they'd have a reason to claim that it's theirs.

Not that I'm anti-English at all, my wife is from Englandshire! Just correcting that all-too-frequent implication that "the nation" refers to "England", or "England/Britain/whatever it's all the same isn't it?"

Lastly, I worked in Aberdeen for 3 years. Man, you lads must be hard as nails!!

Saint Helens clearly deserve to win. They are the Team of the Year by far. They have showed outstanding talent, Skill, style and great team work all throughout the 2006 Season. They have dominated every competition that they have played in!Why Paul Wellens was not in the final ten for Sports Personality of the year I will never know! He is one of the Best Full backs in the world not to mention all the top awards he has won this year (the man of steel award, The RL Writers Association player of the year award and also the Players player award!)Saint Helens have also won The Coach of the Year award (Daniel Anderson) and Young Player of the Year Award (James Graham). If Saint Helens do not win then this competition is clearly a fix.

St Helens for Team of the Year!

Good luck to the Mighty SAINTS after a truly fantastic season. I am very proud to say that they really have put a small town oop North on the map. To maintain their winning form on a tight budget over such a long season deserves true acclaim. The BBC did at least show live games from the Challenge Cup and gave us the eloquence of Ray French who as a commentator knows his stuff and manages to convey the skill, speed and ferocity of the game. As for the other nominations, well I think that enough has been said about those already.

Steve (post 77) clearly needs to rethink – this tiny club wins big AND wins 3 trophies plus numerous other accolades, and against loads of serious competition without the aid of a blank cheque! Posts 81 and 82 say it all.

For those who mistakenly describe rugby league as a "minority sport" - in the season just finished, Leeds had an average attendance of over 15,000 - Wigan (who didn't even finish in the top half) averaged over 14,000.

Perhaps someone can tell me which cricket counties (a supposedly non-minority sport) exceeded this figure?

Apparently the 20-20 Cup was seen as an attendance success drawing an average of around 6500, much the same as were watching Catalans Dragons.

Andrew Flintoff the England captain watched one of Saints last games of the season, he is now a strong Rugby League fan and said that the level of fitness, commitment and team play was awesome.

What Saints did last season in a sport so far ahead of the rest in these areas must be recognised. The levels these players need to achieve cannot be attained in most other sports.

Our footballers, cricketers and golfers would be on their knees, and most other sportsmen get paid more! Let's give credit were it is due.

Based on the assumption that the Team of the Year should be a succesful team who show pride and passion in their sport and perform at a very high standard week in, week out, whilst playing a valuable role in the community - the award goes to Saints.

Their standand of play this year has been consistently good and they have totally outshone every other team in the League. Rugby League is a fantastic game with supporters of all clubs mixing freely at matches. A win for Saints would also be a win for the sport of Rugby League by enhancing it's profile and not before time!

Missed the discussion on 5 live so don't know if another British team who are current world champions were discussed - Dave Murdoch's curling team.

Not only did they win the world title but they finished 4th in the Olympics and 3rd in the europeans - British success on the world stage.

No disrespect to Reading or Gretna but it is not in the same league as these guys achievements or that of the rowers.

For me, its a toss up between Sussex and St Helens. I would have to go with St Helens though.

I am a cricket fan first and foremost, but I like to watch the occasional super league game. How this game doesn't get the media coverage, that its cousin rugby union gets is disgraceful.

St Helens play a form of rugby ive never seen before, dominating all before them. For this reason the award should go to them.

One thinks that the RFU should cast an envious eye over rugby league, as St Helens seem to be able to play rugby a million times better than the england rugby union team!

As a Wigan fan, St Helens are clearly the best team this year. If they win the World club challenge then they will have all the trophies they can possibly win all at once. It will be a travesty if they don't win, in the same way that Kris Radlinski is not up for sports personality.

Pleasing to see that this is no longer a parochial UK contest; given that the European golf team and Irish golfer Darren Clarke are nominated.
In Which case: for domination of their sports over 2006, surely it is obvious that Roger Federer should win the main award and the All Blacks the team gong. Graham Henry having taken the All Blacks from also rans at the last World Cup should be a shoe in as Coach of the year.On which basis, I'm having trouble understanding the nominations.
Of the three teams nominated, Sussex should get the nod, as they are very much a team rather than a blend of star performers; but how they rate higher as a Cricket team than the Aussie test team on performances over 2006 (and likewise St Helens vv the kangaroos in RL) defeats me.

A southerner living in East Anglia, and I would agree St Helens deserve to win. (not often I say this as a Bradford Bulls fan)
From my persepective,it is a shame when Bradford did the same a coupel of years ago they weren't even in the shortlist and RL got about 30 secinds on the BBC programme- hopefully RL will get more airtime this year then!

A southerner living in East Anglia, and I would agree St Helens deserve to win. (not often I say this as a Bradford Bulls fan)
From my persepective,it is a shame when Bradford did the same a coupel of years ago they weren't even in the shortlist and RL got about 30 secinds on the BBC programme- hopefully RL will get more airtime this year then!

I think St Helens should win the award although the Ryder Cup team have produced a great achievement the skill, power and consistency shown throughout the super league season was just amazing from the St Helens outfit.

The problem with rugby league is evidenced by the St Helens/RL fans who have hijacked this blog.
Get over your inferiority complex that means you try and turn everything into a battle to prove RL is a great sport.
It is only played in a small corner of the UK, and by a handful of countries, so I am afraid St Helens' achievements are lessened as a result.
It is easy to be a big fish in a small pond.
Others who compete against greater competition deserve the prize more.

I'm quite surprised to see that that 'wee' football team Celtic - from the micky mouse Scottish Premier League,have not been nominated for the Team of the Year award??

Surely after all we have led to believe, that the English Premier is the best league in the world, with the best players and the best stadiums and the most Russian dosh, and the best financial deal with satellite TV, and the best referees, and the best commentators, and..... well i think you might get my point! How DID they beat ManU??

Unless maybe its not the best.......!! I nominate the Glasgow Celtic!!

Sorry jo, I will have to disagree with you there.

Although the professional game of RL is mostly played in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria, there are professional and sem-professional teams in London and Wales, plus teams that play Rugby League in towns and cities all over the country (I use my team Wolverhampton Wizards as an example).

It is also played in over 50 countries around the world, ranging from Serbia to Holland, not the "handful" you suggest

You are entitled to your opinion, but I think you're are just jumping on the old attitudes that people make when they don't follow Rugby League

St Helens deserve the award as they were the premier side in Super League this year, they won the Challenge Cup after winning every game on the way by 30 points or more and they dominated the post-season awards.

RL is a great sport and a tough one too. It just needs to be recognised more in the country. What it needs is recognition such as RU got when England won the World Cup.

In my opinion, I think St Helens deserve the honour whole heartedly, not taking anything away from the Ryder Cup team and Sussex who did a tremendous job. However, RL is a sport that gets tougher and tougher each year and still St Helens managed to finish 8 points clear at the top of the table and with numourous honours.

This is especially significant when in May 2005 their long-serving coach was sacked and there were rumours that it was all down hill from there.

Going from 2 years of winning no major domestic titles to making a clean sweep in 06 and still encouraging the game at grass roots level, I think, even as a Wigan supporter, is a great and achievement and that St Helens deserve the honour.

Sadly, however, I doubt there will be any other winner than the Ryder Cup team based on the fact that that was broadcast on the BBC and therefore the BBC would want them to win it.

All the same, come on St Helens!

Congratulations to post number 141 for winning the moron of the day award.

It usually helps to think before people put their brain in gear. Amateur rugby league is played all over the country- in fact Russian teams play against their amateur counterparts in the early rounds of the Challenge Cup.

On a similar theme, Harlequins represent London as do Les Catalans represent the Southern region of France. It amazes me why people mention that 'rugby league is only played in a corridor' and neglect to mention that this same argument (if inddeed it is one) could be applied to rugby union which is basically nothing in the North if one is to judge by the harsh criteria set in the first place.

Most of the comments on here are reasoned. It is a pity there is the odd idiot who can't establish fact from myth.

Finally!! Rugby League gets some recognition by the BBC! Now it's time for rugby league to be given more credit! How often do the stories appear in the sports section of the news hour?? David Beckham only has to pick his nose and he's on the news! When will the BBC take more of an interest in League instead od Yawnion!

I'm beginning to think that Arsene Wenger is a Lancashire making excuses, the fact of the matter is Sussex were the better side this year, and as I recall the weather aided them to a draw at Hove.

They also forget that Sussex do play away from Hove going to Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham, Nottinghamshire which you are hardly sunny all year round so just accept it that you lost even with your so-called stars.

Looking forward to winning again next year!!!

Good old Sussex by the sea

As an out & out Warrington Wolves fan it is unusual for me to sing St Helens praises but on this occasion I believe they truly deserve to win. Their performance this season has been amazingly outstanding and their continued success something many other rugby league teams can only dream of. Nice 1 Saints & good luck!!

The award says it all - The Ryder cup was a weekend win with players who are not UK based.
Both St Helens and Sussex produced results week in , week out. I would give it to St Helens for the number of team and individual awards they have won over the year in what must be the most physically demanding sports in the country.

St Helens all the way! They were by far the best Super League team this season; winning every award possible. Plus the standard they played to week in, week out was outstanding. Rugby League is a highly physical game, and is tough on the players unlike golf and cricket, so to produce such a high standard every week is a great achievement.

C'mon you Saints!!

I would love it to be St Helens but I doubt the powers that be will allow this to happen.
Big thanks to all the Rugby League fans who have put forward St Helens even when they don't support the Saints, you guys are true RL supporters.