Ranking Europe's Top 15 Club Players for 2014-15 Season
As the domestic season makes way for World Cup warm-ups over the summer months, now is a good time to look back at the men who most impressed in club colours.
We have looked at tries scored, but also the influence players had on their teams, as well as rewarding consistent excellence.
Not everyone is an international.
The club season and its many international breaks afford the chance to shine to others who put in the hours for their employers while their colleagues are on national service.
We have also assessed form in domestic battle, as well as Europe.
Here is our pick of the European season.
15. Fritz Lee
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Clermont’s imported No. 8 from New Zealand had a stellar first season at the back of Les Jaunards’ scrum.
The former Chiefs player was named on the shortlist for European Player of the Year for his efforts in a season where Clermont finished runners-up in both the Champions Cup and Top 14.
Stuff.co.nz wrote:
"At just 26 he is a classic case of the growing trend of New Zealand talent being lured to overseas clubs prematurely. In confirming Lee among the finalists, the judging panel of five leading European rugby journalists described Lee as a revelation. "A revelation this season, Lee was at the heart of some of Clermont's very best performances this season most notably the wins over Munster in Limerick and against Northampton in the quarterfinal."
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14. Nathan Hughes
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Wasps No. 8 Nathan Hughes was the only non-England squad member to make it onto this season’s Premiership Player of the Year shortlist.
The Fijian-born back rower has been mooted as an outside bet for England honours once he qualifies through residency and, per Hugh Godwin in the Independent, has decided to pass on a place in Fiji’s World Cup squad this year, perhaps with an eye on June 2016, when he will have lived in England long enough to wear the red rose.
"Wasps’ owner Derek Richardson also weighed in, when high-profile marquee signings was the topic: “Why would we need to get a Richie McCaw or somebody like that when we have the stardust in our team? Nathan Hughes is spectacular.” And so say all of us, or at least anyone who has seen Hughes ripping the Premiership up with his rampant running and lavish one-handed ball skills.
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13. Jonny Gray
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Gray capped his first full season as a professional with international honours, the Pro 12 title with Glasgow and the league’s Young Player of the Year trophy, as well as his club’s Players Player of the Year award.
The 21-year-old second row was so impressive in his debut season that he even graduated to captain of the Warriors and was mentioned, per the Herald, as a future Scotland skipper.
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12. Chris Ashton
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Ashton’s form this season was good enough to get back onto the England radar, and he was included in the initial 50-man training squad for the World Cup.
The former rugby league man scored 13 tries in the Premiership and four in Europe.
11. Mathieu Bastareaud
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Bastareaud was inspired for Toulon all season.
The bullocking centre was also on the scoresheet in the Champions Cup final, bringing his European tally to five for the campaign.
He was a focal point for the side's attack, punching holes in the tough-tackling environs of Top 14 rearguards and establishing platforms beyond the gain line for his team to attack from.
10. Jacques Burger
6 of 15Saracens’ wolf pack scrapped their way to the Premiership title this season, with flanker Jacques Burger fulfilling the role of top dog.
The Namibian back-rower appeared 18 times for the Fez heads in the league and also starred in Europe, with his relentless hunting of opposition ball-carriers as key a part of the side’s DNA as the twin threat of wings David Strettle and Chris Ashton.
Ahead of the Premiership final, the Telegraph’s Mick Cleary wrote:
"Burger is a Saracens man to his core, a player who epitomises their best features: honest, grafting, selfless, relentless. He is so valued by the club for whom he signed six years ago that they extended his contract a couple of years back even though he was laid up with such a serious knee injury that it looked as if he would never play again.
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9. Guilhem Guirado
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Toulon’s hooker was a revelation this season. Guirado displayed powerful running and offloading ability that gave a touch of panache to the brutal characteristics of the European Champions’ pack.
He carried this ability into French colours and has further strengthened the options for Les Bleus at hooker alongside Benjamin Kayser and Dimitri Szarzewski.
8. Steffon Armitage
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Armitage was again on the shortlist for European Player of the Year after another sterling campaign for Toulon.
The barrel-chested back-rower spent more time in the No. 7 jersey than the previous campaign, during which he featured heavily as No. 8 for the European Champions.
And he was again in good enough nick to prompt calls for his inclusion in the England set-up.
A mooted move to Bath that would surely have sealed his red rose comeback never materialised, so Armitage will have to wait for another chance to hop back over the channel if he is to resume his international career.
7. Thomas Waldrom
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Exeter’s No. 8 may be far from the salad days of his career, but he was the Premiership’s top try-scorer in club rugby this season with 16 in 22 games for the Exeter Chiefs.
After a career that has spanned 13 years with the Hurricanes, Crusaders and Leicester Tigers before the 32-year-old pitched up in Devon, Sandy Park seemed to be the final stop on the line for Thomas the Tank.
But Waldrom’s barnstorming form has been one of the key reasons for the Chiefs’ strong showing this campaign, and his try tally equaled Neil Back’s record for tries in a Premiership season.
6. Billy Vunipola
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Vunipola rediscovered his best form in a Saracens shirt in their run to the semi-finals of Europe and the Premiership title.
Stand-out performances against Munster at home and in that brutal semi against Clermont characterized his destructive running ability.
And he also improved his stamina and fitness, as was evidenced by his England performances that lasted the distance rather than the 50-minute efforts of the previous season.
5. Matt Giteau
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Giteau remains one of the best players on the planet and was as influential as ever for Toulon in their march to a third straight European title.
The Australian can play equally well at No. 10 or 12, but it was telling that he was the man trusted with fly-half duties by Bernard Laporte in the big final.
The exiled Wallaby is certainly still good enough to play international rugby and with the ARU’s relaxed rules on overseas players now enshrined, he could well figure in the coming World Cup.
4. George Ford
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Ford’s form for Bath forced him into England’s No. 10 shirt in the autumn.
He then impressed wearing the Red Rose during the Six Nations and continued that form once back in club colour, scoring 219 points in his 16 league outings.
He was heroic in defeat against Leinster in the Champions Cup quarter-final and was the architect of the dismantling of Leicester in the Premiership semi-final.
An off-colour day in the final against Saracens was out of step with what has been a stunning breakthrough season for the young Lancastrian.
3. Rhys Webb
13 of 15Ospreys No. 9 Rhys Webb was the stand-out No. 9 in Europe.
The 26-year-old scored 12 tries for the Welsh region and established himself as Wales’ first-choice scrum-half, ousting the great Mike Phillips.
Webb’s searing pace and eye for a gap caused defences all sorts of problems during the campaign.
At the end of the season, he was voted Players’ Player of the Year in the Pro 12, and his form was summed up best by walesonline.co.uk’s Delme Parfitt:
"If a Lions squad was being named tomorrow Webb would be nailed on with his performances as part of a buoyant Ospreys team, and on the international circuit for Wales, having got everybody talking this season.
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2. Nick Abendanon
14 of 15Abendanon’s form for Clermont was one of the stories of the season on both sides of the channel.
The former Bath full-back was a revelation during Clermont’s Champions Cup campaign, coming to the attention of the English rugby public who began to wonder if he was another who should be considered exceptional enough for Stuart Lancaster to invoke his exceptional circumstances that would allow him to stick overseas–based players in the England squad.
A stunning performance in the quarter-final against Northampton, capped with a coast-to-coast try, was followed by another virtuoso effort in the final to round off an exceptional season that was gilded with the title of Europe’s Player of the Year.
1. Sergio Parisse
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Stade Francais’ captain led them back to the promised land with their first French Top 14 title in eight years.
The Italian talisman had another outstanding season, combining his strength with those famous silken hands.
Never more so was his unique ability in evidence than in Stade's Top 14 semi-final win over Toulon with this delicious offload.
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