The official Six Nations player of the tournament shortlist has been announced and, as tends to happen with these things, it's sure to cause some debate.
The main point of interest is that Sam Warburton is absent from the twelve man list, as is Leigh Halfpenny, two players whom many would have assumed would be certainties to make the shortlist.
From an Irish point of view, we're more than happy to accept that it was more of a team performance that dragged us to a second consecutive championship title but Johnny Sexton and Peter O'Mahony are surely a bit unfortunate to miss out. Sexton's less than ideal performance against the Welsh is presumably what has caused hims absence. However, is that enough to expunge all his other good work?
We'd say hell no but then again we would. As for O'Mahony, we can't think of any reason why he wouldn't be there. In all there's four English players, three from Ireland, two each from Wales and Scotland and one from Italy.
A statement from the Six Nations has explained the selection process for the award:
To ensure fairness, the RBS 6 Nations analysts have weighted the importance of different actions depending on different positions. These categories have been collated to give each player an overall performance score.
Six Nations Player Of The Tournament Shortlist:
England:
George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Ben Youngs, Billy Vunipola
Ireland:
Paul O'Connell, Conor Murray, Robbie Henshaw
Wales:
Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Biggar
Scotland:
Stuart Hogg, Jonny Gray
Italy:
Sergio Parisse
You can vote for the award here.
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