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Kevin Sinfield wins rugby league 2012 Golden Boot
Leeds Rhinos and England captain Kevin Sinfield has won the 2012 Golden Boot, the annual award for the world's best rugby league player.
The 32-year-old Lancastrian is only the fourth English player to win the award.
Captain fantastic
- Six Grand Final wins
- Two-time winner of the Harry Sunderland award for man of the match in a Grand Final
- Led the club to three World Club Challenge wins
- All-time top points scorer for the Rhinos
- Won the Lance Todd Trophy, for man of the match in a Challenge Cup final, in 2005
- 2012 Golden Boot winner
He beat Wigan full-back Sam Tomkins and Australians Cameron Smith, Ben Barba, Cooper Cronk and Nate Myles to lift the prize.
The previous English winners are Ellery Hanley (1988), Garry Schofield (1990) and Andy Farrell (2004).
Sinfield led the Rhinos to World Club Challenge success against Australian champions Manly Sea Eagles, and a sixth Super League title in nine years, collecting the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man of the match in the Old Trafford Grand Final.
He also captained the Rhinos to the Challenge Cup final at Wembley and led England to victory against France and Wales in the Autumn International Series.
John Drake, editor of Rugby League World magazine, which makes the award, said: "The British game can and does still produce individuals of world-class ability. Kevin Sinfield is one such player and it is right that his towering achievements in 2012 should be recognised with the Golden Boot."
Recent Golden Boot winners
- 2011: Johnathan Thurston (Australia)
- 2010: Benji Marshall (New Zealand)
- 2009: Greg Inglis (Australia)
- 2008: Billy Slater (Australia)
- 2007: Cameron Smith (Australia)
- 2006: Darren Lockyer (Australia)
Martyn Sadler, chairman of League Publications Ltd, said: "Kevin can't move as quickly as Ben Barba, or with the elusiveness of Sam Tomkins, while Cameron Smith's ability close to the ruck is surely second to none.
"But Sinfield is a supreme captain, and only Cameron Smith can rival his leadership, while Sinfield's goal-kicking success rate in 2012 was 82.84%, compared to 69.64% for Smith.
"In the Super League Grand Final Sinfield kicked five out of five, from all over the pitch, and that after he had been knocked out earlier by a challenge to the head. What he did in that game goes beyond what could reasonably be expected, even of a Golden Boot winner."
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Comment number 190.
billy18956th January 2013 - 21:23
188. Well said. They always give excuses that there players have injurys. Just in case they lose as well.
Link to this (Comment number 190)
Comment number 189.
dirtygumshield6th January 2013 - 19:54
Congratulations to Kevin Sinfield on winning this award, well deserved and recognition for a lot of hard, gritty work which may not always please the eye but wins matches (personally I think Cameron Smith is the best player in the sport at the moment but for now, who cares?)
Link to this (Comment number 189)
Comment number 188.
Aussie in Yorks6th January 2013 - 17:54
Having lived the first 30 years of my life in Australia, it's becoming a joke saying that NRL, is better than SL. Note one thing, the Australians always want a Aussie ref to ref the game, never a British ref, never a French ref , never a NZ ref, we always play the Aussie rules, lying on, wrestling in the tackle , if we don't play their way they moan, grow up Aussie and play in the real world.
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Comment number 187.
Stuart6th January 2013 - 17:38
Oh dear. What a sour, bitter little bunch the Australians are. Sorest losers on the planet. It's a shame their mouths and ego's are bigger than than their stance on sportsmanship. But I expect nothing less from a nation 20 years behind the rest of the world, and yes, I have been there and know what it's like
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Comment number 186.
PieNtries6th January 2013 - 15:06
Im with Kennycat re ARL, I think SL is great...Then I watch state of origin, until we have anything remotely similar we'll always be on the backfoot. Re Sinfield, he deserves the award, true leader. Dont agree RL going bust, look back at any year in the past 100 and there always been clubs in troubke Doing ok, given the economy, but could do better. Step up in Leadership needed from HQ.
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