5 Players Who Enhanced Their Reputations in 2014/15 Champions Cup

European rugby is done and dusted for another season, with the same name on a slightly different trophy this year.

Toulon’s hat-trick of titles is richly deserved by the galaxy of star names who have come together to form a dominant outfit.

Some of those players have excelled in the competition this season, but there are others who have graced the tournament with some of the best rugby of their careers.

Let’s have a look at five of them.

1. Nick Abendanon

After a Champions Cup final that saw the good and bad of Nick Abendanon, the full–back walked off with the ERC Player of the Year award for his efforts this season.

The former Bath man played in all of his side’s tournament matches, lighting up the quarter-final with an end-to-end try against Northampton as well as an assist for Wesley Fofana.

He then scored a stunning chip-and-chase try in the final against Toulon, a score that somewhat atoned for an erroneous kick in the first half that resulted in a try for the eventual winners.

Abendanon’s outstanding first season for the French giants has led to calls for his selection to England’s World Cup squad, heaping more pressure on Stuart Lancaster to invoke the RFU’s "exceptional circumstances" rule that would allow him to pick overseas-based players.

Over to you, Stuart.

2. Billy Vunipola

Vunipola made the shortlist for the ERC award this season after some outstanding displays throughout the tournament. The England No. 8 has improved his engine immeasurably this season.

Where he used to be hauled off by England after 50 minutes, the Saracen was finishing games in the autumn and at Six Nations.

And for his club, he marauded around the fields of Europe as the tournament’s most destructive ball-carrying forward. Vunipola has made the jump this season from raw tyro to genuine world-class operator.

Against Clermont in Saracens’ opening pool match, the 22-year-old covered 49 metres with the ball and made eight tackles, according to ESPN.co.uk.

His performance when they met again in the semi-finals drew astonishment from the The Guardian’s Rob Kitson: “Quite how Billy Vunipola…walked away unaided at the end was a total mystery.”

In the pool stages, his stats in Saracens’ home win over Munster were even more impressive. He covered 70 metres, made two clean breaks, beat four defenders, made three offloads and forced two turnovers to add to his 12 tackles, according to ESPN.co.uk.

If he can carry his form into the World Cup, England's opponents will have a hard time stopping him.

3. Leigh Halfpenny

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It was a quiet start to life in Toulon for Leigh Halfpenny.

But as the season has worn on and the games have grown in their importance and intensity, the Lions full-back has shown his class.

Safe as houses in defence and dangerous in attack, Halfpenny’s most impressive trait has been how effortlessly he has picked up the goal-kicking mantle from Jonny Wilkinson at the club.

The former Cardiff Blues man showed his temperament can stand up to the white-hot pressure of European club rugby in the semi-final, in which he contributed 20 of the 25 points in Toulon’s tourniquet-tight contest with Leinster.

And he was again a key man in the final, kicking three out of his first four attempts to keep Toulon in touch as Clermont started strongly. He finished with 14 points.

This was a fresh challenge in an alien environment for a soft-spoken boy from Swansea, and he rose to it, just as he has to every new test set for him in a career that has plenty more highlights to come.

4. Steffon Armitage

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Armitage gave Stuart Lancaster a headache last season and has done it again this year.

In the Champions Cup, he has scored four tries, the joint-second-highest of any player, but it’s his work at the breakdown and as a running option that has marked him out as a No. 7 of markedly different attributes to those possessed by the men eligible for Lancaster’s squad.

We saw his ability to hare through holes and bounce off tacklers in the final, and he topped the tackle count with 16, according to ESPN.co.uk.

And in the preceding match against Leinster he was sent on in place of none other than South African legend Juan Smith after a half-hour and made his presence felt with plenty of yardage and defenders beaten.

The Guardian’s Eddie Butler wrote following the final:

"

Armitage is not a classical No7, or 8 but he does certain things supremely well, the most obvious being placing himself over the ball at the breakdown…His bulk also makes him impressive as a ball-carrier, but he seems to have been using himself more as a decoy of late, prepared to give more passes than take the ball into contact. It makes him more mysterious – no bad thing.

"

5. Jonathan Joseph

It has been a breakthrough season for Jonathan Joseph, whether he's played for club or country.

His performances for England in the Six Nations were given plenty of column inches and all but cemented him in the outside-centre position for this autumn’s World Cup.

But you have to go back to Bath’s daunting trip down to Toulouse in the pool stages of the Champions Cup to identify the performance that truly elevated the former London Irish man to his current status.

Joseph first scored a fine try himself before a dazzling run that comprised a standing start, a delicate chip gathered on the hoof, a snaking run around a handful of Toulouse defenders and the presence of mind to find his supporting runner, ending in a try for Francois Louw.

At that precise moment, if all else was silenced, you could have heard the scrabbling for the cheque books by the big French club owners.