End-of-season awards: best games, players and more
Best games attended
1) Leinster 34-37 Northampton, 3 May. One of the great ram-raids.
2) England 26-25 France, 8 February. A crazy contest with a dramatic late twist.
3) Bath 26-36 Bristol, 5 October. Bristol's attacking play was sublime.
Best matchday experience
1) Bath v Bristol Bears, Premiership semi-final, 6 June. Beautiful setting, lovely evening and a cracking pastel de nata in Widcombe before the game.
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2) Bordeaux v Northampton, Champions Cup final, 24 May. A great occasion beneath the roof in Cardiff.
3) Richmond v Bishop's Stortford, 1 March. If you fancy a convivial afternoon in London head down to the Athletic Ground.
Champagne moments
1) Elliot Daly's perfectly engineered late try for England in the aforementioned France game.
2) Tomos Williams' basketball-style offload to Seb Atkinson in Gloucester's win over Bristol at Kingsholm.
3=) Adam Radwan's flying score for Leicester in their Premiership semi-final against Sale Sharks.
3=) Kalaveti Ravouvou's reverse offload to set up Gabriel Ibitoye against Leicester in April.
Men's player of the season
Louis Bielle-Biarrey (France). Simply magnifique for club and country.
Women's player of the season
Ilona Maher (Bristol Bears). In terms of popularising women's rugby she is doing a fabulous job. 'The impact she's had on the game as a whole is pretty phenomenal,' confirmed her club captain Amber Reed.
Best comeback
Leicester conceding 80 points in Toulouse in January and bouncing back to make the Premiership final in June.
Most influential Premiership players
1 =) Finn Russell (Bath), Thomas du Toit (Bath), Ben Spencer (Bath).
Coaches of the season
1) Johann van Graan (Bath).
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2) Michael Cheika (Leicester).
3) Yannick Bru (Bordeaux).
Best interviewee
An audience with Ellis Genge is never dull.
Success stories
1) The rebirth of the Premiership as fast-paced sporting entertainment. Some of the rugby was genuinely spectacular.
2) Maro Itoje's elevation to the England captaincy.
3) Bath's first English league title for 29 years.
Worst initiative
1) The 'Run It Straight' challenge.
2) The proposed 'Rugby 360' circus.
3) Away ends at domestic club games.
Administrative work-ons
1) Reducing the number of TMO interventions in games.
2) Cracking down on blatant forward passes.
3) Overhauling the disciplinary system. The 'tackle school' loophole is a nonsense.
Potential Lion kings
1 =) Dan Sheehan, Sione Tuipulotu, Tommy Freeman.
Most inspiring rugby people
1) Ed Slater. One of the good guys whose bravery and honesty since his MND diagnosis continues to be an example to us all.
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2) Taylor Gough. The former Leicester academy player has overcome a spinal injury to qualify as a personal trainer and has now been selected for the Great Britain para-canoe team in the upcoming European Championships.
3) Ma'a Nonu. Still scoring tries in the Top 14 at the age of 43.
Marketing gimmick of the year
Shortening all tournament names – the Prem, the Champ – in a bid to appear hip and trendy. Let's all watch the footy this arvo …
Double whammy
Owen Farrell cutting short his spell at Racing 92 to return to Saracens and Stuart Lancaster taking over as Connacht's new head coach.
Overheard
'If he'd have been playing for England I'd have been sad but he wasn't so we waved him away to the bin.' A female Bath fan discussing Dan Cole's yellow card on the train home from the Premiership final.
Retired but not forgotten
Ben Youngs, Dan Cole, Danny Care, Mike Brown, Dan Biggar, Peter O'Mahony, Conor Murray, Cian Healy et al.
Future stars
Guy Pepper (Bath), Emeka Ilione (Leicester), Marko Gazzotti (Bordeaux).
Most looking forward to
1) The second British & Irish Lions Test at the MCG on 26 July. A massive game in one of the great sporting cathedrals.
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2) The Women's World Cup final at Twickenham on 27 September. Potentially England's date with destiny.
3) A better-funded second tier and properly marketed, full-on promotion-relegation playoffs in English club rugby next season.
Quotes of the season
The day you stop dreaming is the day you die in life' – Johann van Graan.
Credit to the lads for putting their heads in where you wouldn't put a shovel' – Leinster's Jack Conan following his team's URC final win over the Bulls.
If you have just won a European Cup I'm surprised if the first thing you want to do is start a fight with a 20-year-old' – Northampton's Fin Smith on the post-game spat involving his teammate Henry Pollock following Bordeaux-Begles' victory in Cardiff.
You look at the calibre of the England coaching team and you have to question whether that's the best we can put out there' – Will Carling on Radio 4's Today programme during the Six Nations.
We won the game and people are still upset about it. It blew my mind, to be honest. Ex-players, recently retired and long retired, and people from years and years ago, I just can't believe how out of touch they are' – Ellis Genge after England's Calcutta Cup win.
Hopefully they're filling up the pubs of south-west London, having a good time and jumping up and down on sofas all across England' – Maro Itoje following England's dramatic win over France at Twickenham.
We pull up at a roundabout and a car pulls up next to us. Mum and grandma are in the front seat and there's a kid who can't have been more than five. His grandma winds down the back window and the kid just gives us the middle finger. It's things like that – and the rivalry – that make this fixture so special. It does rev you up a little bit' – Ollie Chessum on the traditionally warm reception England always receive in Cardiff.
I want Louis Bielle-Biarrey underpants, duvet covers and a red scrum cap for whenever it rains or, for that matter, whenever it doesn't. I want to move next door to LBB in UBB; I want Louis Bielle-Biarrey to marry my daughter' – France's star winger can do no wrong in the eyes of RugbyPass's columnist Graham Simmons.
Better than sex. Don't tell my wife that!' – Henry Slade clearly enjoyed Exeter's win over Gloucester in December, the Chiefs' first league win for 232 days.
Boys getting run into the ground is no good. Is there a silver bullet that's going to sort it all out? Probably not. I've always said we're a guinea pig era' – Ellis Genge on the reality of modern pro rugby.
I just said to them: 'I am absolutely embarrassed, guys. And I hope you all are when you pick up your wages next week. A lot of people have bust their arse over the last four years to keep this club alive so be embarrassed.' And then I walked out. I didn't give them a bollocking' – Exeter's chairman Tony Rowe.
The significance of these new and innovative free-to-air partnerships for the Six Nations cannot be overstated' – Tom Harrison, the Six Nations CEO, after striking a new deal that will keep England's championship games on free-to-air TV until 2029.
Rugby's lack of innovation and ability to change risks losing its appeal to new audiences and its younger market' – Mike Tindall believes the proposed new R360 global franchise league is the way ahead for the sport.
This is not a proposal for the good of rugby – it is a simple cash grab' – former England international Brian Moore begs to differ.
At the moment it's dysfunctional, it doesn't work. The more you develop players the less you see of them' – Northampton's director of rugby Phil Dowson on the tug of war between club and country.
It's all I have known in club rugby, the green, red and white, and all I've wanted to know. The idea of playing against this club wasn't ever an option for me. To be able to finish a one-club player will be one of my greatest achievements' – Leicester's retiring scrum-half Ben Youngs.
I always say: 'Good players play the game, great players know the game'' – Bristol's director of rugby Pat Lam.
I'm Peter O'Mahony's mum and I'm retiring from mowing the lawn!' – O'Mahony's mother Caroline holds up her latest sign at the URC game between Munster and Benetton Treviso.
Jesus wept' – O'Mahony's response on live TV.
Congratulations, mate. Great win' – the Premier Sports post-match interviewer Ryan Wilson to Charlie Ewels following Bath's Champions Cup pool defeat to La Rochelle.
Nationality is not a Scottish or Irish scout, waving a cheque in front of a southern player's face and promising an El Dorado to entice him to change countries' – the former Wallaby Anthony Abrahams wades into international rugby's eligibility debate.
It's been embarrassing to go into the shop for a paper on a Sunday morning but you've got to be man enough to do that and get on with it' – Steve Diamond on Newcastle's battle to escape the Premiership basement.
No one is going to learn to drive a car without stalling it, are they? So why on our rugby journey do we expect everything to be executed perfectly? It seems mental' – Northampton's attack coach Sam Vesty on the importance of encouraging youngsters to play without fear.
There is a big energy to return to [the top tier] when we can afford to do so' – Worcester's owner Christopher Holland on the club's approaching new dawn back in England's second tier next season.
Endless summer
Watching an exultant Finn Russell with his top off and clutching a can of cider on Bath's open-top bus parade following their Premiership triumph, it was hard not to wince at rugby's ludicrously congested fixture schedule. How fair is it on top players to expect them to report back immediately for international duty within hours of featuring in seriously intense major finals for their clubs? At what point will someone, somewhere realise that making diplomatic noises about player welfare is incompatible with scheduling yet more competitive games on supposedly spare weekends at the end of an achingly long season? Both psychologically and physically, rugby needs to recognise that quantity and quality are not the same thing.
One to watch
The British & Irish Lions v Argentina. While Friday night's game against Argentina in Dublin will raise bucketloads of cash, the fixture is not entirely what it says on the tin: the Pumas will be forced to field an understrength side while the Lions are either still battered and bruised from last weekend's finals or hoping to climb aboard the plane to Australia in one piece. Nor will the Lions be awarding Test caps. The scoreline will be less significant than the (hopefully positive) fitness updates that subsequently emerge.
Memory lane
To May 2001 and the Army rugby stadium in Aldershot, where head coach Graham Henry is putting his Lions players through their paces before their tour of Australia. Specifically in this case, rucking practice, with Dan Luger and Darren Morris front and centre. The Lions would surge to victory in the first Test but were pegged back and then ultimately denied in the decider by the Wallabies.
Still want more?
Bath's treble win blends yesteryear charm with the recently unthinkable, writes Michael Aylwin.
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Finn Russell is, understandably, basking in Bath's triumph before his focus turns to the Lions.
And Michael Cheika was not happy after Dan Cole's late yellow card in the Premiership final.
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