Strangely it is 10 years since an Irishman was last crowned European Player of the Year. The list of past winners is impressive – Antoine Dupont, Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell, Jonny Wilkinson – but an Anglo-French duopoly has existed since 2012 when Rob Kearney, the Leinster, Ireland and Lions full-back, collected the award.
This time around the all-action Grégory Alldritt will be a warm favourite if La Rochelle win Saturday’s Champions Cup final in Marseille. Should Leinster prevail, though, they have three strong shortlisted contenders in Caelan Doris, James Lowe and Josh van der Flier. It is no disrespect to the excellent Doris and Lowe to suggest the latter would be a worthy winner.
