Samu Manoa: Manoa was a huge part of the Eagles win over Russia and was named Premiership Player of the Month for his work with Northampton. Manoa's rise is nothing short of spectacular going from being out of rugby for a few years to being one of the best players in the Premiership.
New Zealand: What a spectacular way to become the first team in the professional era to go undefeated in a calendar year. Their comeback against Ireland was something to watch and was the only fitting end to a great season. It's not as if the team hasn't had to deal with turmoil and injuries either this year, they've had plenty. Full credit to all the players and the staff involved.
Take the jump to read more.
Titi Lamositele: Getting his first start for the Eagles will allow him to sign a professional contract with Saracens. That's huge for a young player and even bigger for the Eagles. It's not as if his start wasn't deserved either. Throughout the Canada series, the ARC, and now the November tour he has shown that he is more than capable of playing at an international level. Now with time at Saracens he can only get better.
Arkansas State: Repeat national championship. Loaded squad. Undefeated. That's basically all you need to know about the Red Wolves season.
Georgia: So if the U.S. beats Georgia and then Georgia beats Samoa, does that mean the U.S. is better than Samoa? We're only joking of course. Aside from the loss to the Eagles, Georgia were one fire this fall and their win over Samoa was a great accomplishment.
U.S.A. Rugby Staffers: The staffers weren't the ones responsible for the lack of webstream on Saturday (see below) but they did a good job of fielding complaints, providing explanations with the little information they had, and then getting video of the match up. Often they are hardworking, rugby-loving people that are trapped in a bureaucracy.
Losers
IRB: U.S.A. Rugby and Rugby Russia were not responsible for the lack of a live webstream last Saturday, that was the IRB. When it was clear that the IRB dropped the ball U.S.A. Rugby tried to fill the void and took the fall. That's terrible. The IRB should have first and foremost made better plans for webstreaming the match and then after it was clear that it wasn't going to happen should have apologized. Instead, they cowardly let the staffers at U.S.A. Rugby suffer.
Samoa: It was a November to forget for Samoa. They weren't able to recreate their heroics of last year and fell to Georgia. They were missing several players but they still have the talent to do better.
U.S.A. Women: They are only losers in the sense that unlike several of the other top women's teams around the world they weren't able to go on tour this November. Last year's tour to France helped immensely and with not much time left before the World Cup a tour would have been a perfect venue to try some new players out.
ACRA: As we've written in the past the ACRA is a great tournament and something that other areas should copy. However, this year's tournament has featured several blowouts and its timing has meant that it has been overshadowed by the Eagles tour and the College 7s Nationals. Hopefully in the future it can get more attention.