Such a needlessly quick turnaround.
For some reason, this time around, the EPCR wanted to get the European Player of the Year decision wrapped up and sorted before the Racing and Leinster players left the field at the San Mames stadium.
In past seasons, the likes of Sean O’Brien, Owen Farrell and Jonny Wilkinson have all been awarded the prestigious honour in the days after the European Cup final.
The winner was always going to come from the finalists, the two best sides in Europe coming into the contest, and many felt a Leinster player was destined to win the award after their side’s tense 15-12 victory.
On Saturday, with Olive Foley and Anthony Foley Jr. at the ground, the organisation pressed ahead. The widow and son of the late Munster and Ireland legend made their way onto the pitch and presented the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy to Racing lock Leone Nakarawa.
While we would have gone for the indefatigable Leinster forward Scott Fardy from the shortlist of five nominees decided upon before the final – Maxime Machenaud, Johnny Sexton and Tadhg Furlong were the others – Nakarawa was a class above for Racing on their journey to Bilbao.
Our major complaint with the awarding of the trophy was just how rapidly it all went down.
The public had a say, along with an expert rugby panel of six members, in coming up with that shortlist but to decide on the best player over the whole campaign less than 15 minutes after the final whistle was rushed and bizarre.
I’m sure that expert panel – Stuart Barnes (Sky Sports/The Sunday Times), Chris Jones (BBC Radio 5 Live), Matthieu Lartot (France Televisions), Emmanuel Massicard (Midi Olympique), Brian O’Driscoll (BT Sport), Dimitri Yachvili (beIN SPORTS) – all met beforehand to discuss the frontrunners but all of them were flat-out working at the stadium as the game finished.
Barnes, Jones, Lartot, Massicard, O’Driscoll and Yachvili surely did not get time in their heaped work schedules to meet up in the stands and argue over who was really the best player over the course of the competition. How could they?
In the final itself, a new contender had emerged. He had not come out of nowhere.
No, James Ryan had in fact played all nine of Leinster’s games in Europe. Granted, he was a sub in four of the six pool pages but he did well, home and away, against Montpellier. He was a titan in the quarter final win over Saracens and near unstoppable in the semi-final annihilation of Scarlets.
And then in the final, Ryan was far and away the best player from either side. He delivered constant front-foot ball, he punched holes, he was superb in the lineout and he worked his rear off making tackles and clearing out rucks. Man of the match in the most important game of the year. Nakarawa had a decent outing but Leinster nullified his attacking threat and he was extremely lucky to avoid being sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.
Nakarawa, Fardy, Ryan, Sexton, Furlong and even the injured but brilliant Machenaud.
All deserve to be in the conversation but why rush the conversation. Give it an hour for God’s sake. Nobody’s going to mind.
