It’s all about timing, but you wonder why the nominations had to come before the November internationals.
Props don’t have an easy time of it in attracting votes and nominations in end of season awards. No prop has ever won World Player of the Year, in the two decades since the accolade has been on the circuit.
Keith Wood – Ireland’s only previous winner of the award – is the only hooker to ever be named world’s best player but the former Munster and Harlequins man ran much of his games as an additional loose forward. Were it for lineout darts and scrummaging alone, Wood may never have stood a chance.
The back-row titans and backline stars have dominated when it comes to personal awards being handed out, at the end of season’s and calendar years.
Monaco, scene of World Rugby’s end of year awards gala on Sunday, will continue that trend. Johnny Sexton is heavy favourite to claim the prize – adding it to the Rugby Writers of Ireland trophy he accepted on Wednesday – with the All Blacks pair of Beauden Barrett and Rieko Ioane not far behind.
Sexton needed Ireland to beat the All Blacks to get over the line. Like Brian O’Driscoll in 2009, a European Cup and a pivotal role in a Grand Slam victory may not have been enough had New Zealand triumphed in Dublin last Saturday night. If Ireland lost, Barrett would have surely edged out Sexton, who also claimed a Guinness PRO14 title back in May.
Few would begrudge the Leinster outhalf the honour, on Sunday, but the lack of Tadhg Furlong on the list of nominees takes something away from the prize itself.
Sexton, Barrett and Ioane all had superb years but Furlong should have got in ahead of either of the nominated South Africans – Malcolm Marx and Faf du Klerk.
Because The Rugby Championship wrapped not long before the nominations were announced, the All Blacks and Springboks were fresher in the mind of the judging panel. South Africa beat the world champions and almost repeated the dose in the final game of the tournament, as well as defeating England back in June.
Furlong had been a totemic figure in Leinster’s double win and started four of Ireland’s five wins in the Six Nations. He was a class act as Ireland won a Test Series against Australia and had just about every opposition coach marvelling at his talents. It was not enough, though, to make the top five.
There has been no cribbing from Furlong or those close to him. He has opted to do his talking on the pitch and he did so with an exclamation point, or three, against New Zealand.
The force of Furlong’s carries and tackles were seismic. He hit the world’s best side with everything he had in a monumental effort that lasted just shy of an hour. 10 carries and 12 tackles, with 20+ rucks hit and a pack that demolished the opposition at scrum-time.
If only the powers-that-be waited until the end of November, when the best of both hemispheres clashed. When the world’s two best sides threw multiple kitchen sinks at the Aviva Stadium.
2016, 2017 and 2018 have been outstanding years for the Wexford tight-head but no nomination has been forthcoming.
One hopes this wrong is righted soon, but Tadhg Furlong will truck on ferociously, and regardless.
