Hore named NZ player of the year

Injured All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore was named as New Zealand's player of the year for 2008 yesterday.

Hore also won the award as New Zealand's best player in this season's Super 14, helping erase some of the disappointment of missing the All Blacks' unbeaten tour of Britain and Ireland through injury.

The All Blacks were named as team of the year after winning the Tri-Nations and completing the 'grand slam' against the home unions while Graham Henry won the coach's award. The New Zealand Rugby Union also presented the first six of more than 400 caps to players who represented the All Blacks between the World War II and the mid 1990s.

New Zealand abandoned the idea of awarding caps to players on their test debuts after 1945 but decided to reintroduce the practice in 1997 and award caps to all the players who missed out.