While our hopes of an all-Irish Champions Cup final were dashed in Dublin on Saturday, and the lingering hope of some Irish representation was extinguished by Clermont on Sunday. While this weekend was hugely disappointing, it marked huge progress, from no Irish quarter-finalists to half of the remaining four within a year.
That return to form has been recognised today, with two CJ Stander and Garry Ringrose making the five-man shortlist for the EPCR European Player of the Year award. Mauro Itoje and Owen Farrell are on the list too, and it is completed with the inclusion of Camille Lopez, who kicked two critical drop-goals against Leinster yesterday afternoon.
The five-man shortlist has been whittled down from the original longlist, released in March. That list featured four Irishmen, meaning Tadhg Furlong and Conor Murray miss out., along with Tyler Blyendaal and Isa Nacewa. The other names to fail to make the cut are Wasps' Thomas Young, Eliot Dally and Joe Launchbury, Clermont's Noa Nakaitaci, Glasgow duo Stuart Hogg and Johnny Gray.
The winner is decided via public vote, meaning you know what to do once you visit the EPCR website.
Here are the final five for EPCR European Player of the Year 2017 #EPCRplayer
Vote now 👉🏻 https://t.co/pZBKv1Kttq pic.twitter.com/VKfOSl6Iji— Heineken Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) April 24, 2017
Last year's winner was Mauro Itoje.
