Scarlets duo miss out on five-man shortlist for Euro rugby’s top award
SCARLETS stars Tadhg Beirne and Gareth Davies have been snubbed for the prestigious EPCR European Player of the Year 2018 award.
The pair were among the original 15 nominees for the accolade following their performances in this season’s Champions Cup as the Scarlets became the first Welsh team to reach the semi-finals in 10 years.
But they failed to make a shortlist of five drawn up by a panel consisting of judges from England, Ireland and France – Italy, Scotland and Wales not being represented on the panel – and a public vote.
Back-row or lock forward Beirne, in particular, had a strong case for inclusion after standing out as the Scarlets defied the odds to reach the knock-out rounds following early defeats to Toulon and Bath at the pool stage.
However, the judges, made up of ex-England outside-half Stuart Barnes (Sky Sports/The Sunday Times), Chris Jones (BBC Radio 5 Live), Matthieu Lartot (France Télévisions), Emmanuel Massicard (Midi Olympique), former Lions and Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll (BT Sport) and ex-France skipper Dimitri Yachvili (beIN SPORTS), and voters ignored his and Wales scrum-half Davies’ claims.
They plumped for a shortlist of five made up of players whose teams – Leinster and Racing 92 – have made next month’s final in Bilbao, Spain.
And the judges added Racing scrum-half Maxime Machenaud to it after he failed to make the long list, making a mockery of it being determined by displays throughout the entire tournament, for his showings in the quarter and semi-finals.
Scott Fardy is one of three Leinster representatives following a Heineken man-of-the-match performance in their demolition of the Scarlets at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium last weekend.
The Australia international is joined by teammates, Tadhg Furlong and Johnny Sexton, with the latter’s personal haul of 18 points in the semi-final taking him to 605 European Cup career points and sixth place on the all-time list.
Lock Leone Nakarawa, who starred for Fiji at the 2015 World Cup and for their sevens teams as they beat Great Britain in the final of the men’s competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is the other Racing representative.
Public voting is open on epcrugby. com/epoty to determine the recipient of the prize and will close following the Champions Cup final at the San Mamés Stadium on May 12.
The winner will receive the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy, a specially-struck commemorative medal and a million air miles courtesy of Turkish Airlines.
All previous eight winners of the prize have been English or Irish.
Shortlist for EPCR European Player of the Year 2018 – presented by Turkish Airlines:
Scott Fardy, Tadhg Furlong, Johnny Sexton (all Leinster), Maxime Machenaud, Leone Nakarawa (both Racing 92).