THREE LEINSTER PLAYERS have been shortlisted for the EPCR’s European Player of the Year award after Leo Cullen’s side booked their place in next month’s Heineken Champions Cup final.
Seán Cronin, Tadhg Furlong and Garry Ringrose are included on the five-man shortlist after helping the province to the St James’ Park decider, while Saracens duo Mako Vunipola and Alex Goode are also in the running.
The Leinster trio have been rewarded for their outstanding performances in blue this term and they will hope to emulate team-mates, Seán O’Brien and Rob Kearney, who won the award in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Cronin, who is now an injury concern for the final after sustaining a calf issue in Sunday’s semi-final win over Toulouse, has started all eight of Leinster’s Champions Cup games this season, scoring six tries.
Furlong’s consistently excellent form has continued during the 2018/19 season and after being nominated last year, the Ireland prop will be hoping to go one step further this time around.
Ringrose, again outstanding against Toulouse at the weekend, has played all but 10 minutes of Leinster’s run to a second consecutive European final.
The 15 initial nominees from the pool stage have been reduced to five based on the combined verdict of a panel of rugby experts — including Brian O’Driscoll, Bryan Habana and Dimitri Yachvili — and a public vote.
Voting has now reopened here and the winner and recipient of the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy will be announced following the Champions Cup final on Saturday 11 May.
EPCR European Player of the Year 2019 shortlist:
- Sean Cronin (Leinster Rugby)
- Tadhg Furlong (Leinster Rugby)
- Alex Goode (Saracens)
- Garry Ringrose (Leinster Rugby)
- Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
Seen better acting in Fair City
Wow! I didn’t see the game but I don’t think there is any coming back from that comment and I don’t think hyperbole is in your nature John… It must’ve been bad!
Think you were a bit over the top there alright John. I mean, sure it was a dive and a terrible one at that…but Fair City terrible?
Don’t take it too seriously lads, Just wanted throw a dig at the Fair City cast lol
We were joking too John. Now let’s all be friends and go for pints.
Hey… I wasn’t f’n joking… By the power of Bella Doyle I will strike ye down like Aidan O’Shea today! Anyway… Whoever said Mayo were contenders for the all Ireland… Ha ha! That’s more unreal than the fair city set!
The headline should not be tricks the referee it should be O’shea cheats to earn his side a penalty
Cheating is for losers kids, Dont do it.
where you there
But I thought only soccer players dived! Be a few GAA climbing off their high horse now. It’s actually happening a lot these days.
Yep, it’s creeping in and being called “professional” play, or being clever. The GAA should nip it in the bud. Soccer let it get to a stage where it’s now endemic. A couple of retrospective four week bans for bringing the game into disrepute would soon sort it.
It’s always been there to an extent though. Not as cringey as soccer but players always went down under contact to “buy” a free and like you said it was considered clever. In soccer it is just sickeningly outrageous. I’m a huge soccer fan but it’s indefensible, embarrassing stuff.
Still very rare in hurling to be fair
It’s creeping into hurling as well. Lads looking for the soft free. As the poster said above. Come down hard with retrospective bans to stop it progressing from here
Shouldn’t have been on the field in the first place. Mayo shouldve been down to 14 when he should’ve gotten a black card while already on a yellow. Fermanagh should feel like they were robbed.
That wasn’t a black card offence
Deliberately pulling someone down in a cynical challenge is a black card. That’s exactly what he did. Incase you need the rule clarified check out the gaa rule book http://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/rules-regulations/
Would have been 6 on 6 come the end…
Terrible carry on. At least the Mayo canp won’t have a leg to stand on when the try to reignite their usual “Aidan O’Shea gets nothing from the ref because he’s a big fella”. That dive will come back to bite him the arse down the road.
As a neutral I have to say Joe mcquillen ia the worst referee I’ve ever seen. Made a lot of home town decisions and gave some very soft frees to mayo to bring them back into the game
I would argue he let Fermanagh away with slot but then he let both teams away with a lot of pulling and dragging………and the penalty but the. There’s linesmen and umpires who are there as well did they see different and he over ruled them?
Yeah and Tommy Cooper… Sorry Tommy Carr saying he had a great game up until that! Give me a break. There were another 3 black cards in the last 5 minutes and nothing done about it! Joke!
Agree spoddgy but it’s every game he refs
That’s it every game maybe two refs on the pitch would improve the standards
AOS got two frees from dives in front of goal too that led to two points in first half. I doubt real Mayo supporters will enjoy a victory earned by such blatant cheating and would hope GAA will do something to punish this but won’t hold my breath.
I didn’t enjoy the victory but that’s for other reasons there were blatant dives from Fermanagh to that’s part and parcel of the sport anyone who doesn’t see that either never played the game or a very innocent or blind to the gaa! We have been robbed by bad refereeing enough times and got told to take our beating! Is it one rule for Mayo and another for everyone else?
Tom Daley would have been proud of that.
Cheats…He wasn’t the only Mayo diver either, his brother dived repeatedly as did the O Connor brothers
You can say what you want about aidan o shea as a footballer but as a man you can forget it..
Ref was really poor all day…no idea what a foul is and isn’t
Hope they lose another All Ireland
He dived a few times during the game he goes down like a sack a spuds anytime he’s touched and then wonders why he doesn’t get much frees. Shocking from the ref that changed the whole game and o’shea should have been off at that stage if the ref had any balls . As for mayos hopes of winning Sam they have no chance at all I hope the dubs get them it will be a cake walk for us. Fermanagh will be sick ,great effort by them
Ya your from Dublin and what I’ve seen before any excuse to spread your anti Mayo opinion! He had three your lads dragging him to the ground in the semi final last year but got nothing so you can go jump!
If Mayo draw monaghan in the next round, Mayo’s summer will be over. They’ve gone backwards from last year.
O’Shea is a cheat
They way they are playing the will definitely be out!
Monaghan a serious outfit to be fair, if they had got past longford, theyd have slaughtered mayo!
What’s that Declan?
Wow, didn’t expect that especially with monaghan in clones. Massive shock, fair play Longford!!
There’s no defending the dive. It’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen. It wasn’t even bound clever a out it, cant believe it was given. But, O’Shea gets very hard to win legitimate frees because if his size. Just because he’s a big powerful lad shouldn’t mean he can get rougher treatment than anyone else
Have been watching Joe McQuillen making poor and extremely soft decisions for years. He is a poor referee that will always go on the side of caution and make no big calls. Poor referee
A shame GAA doesn’t have a Nigel Owens type official…
Pat mcenaney was considered the best ref I’d say that too myself but then he did feck us up in the 96 replay
Is the black card gone again or what? So many times in this match the ref let a drag down or a trip go with either a yellow or just a free. Fermanagh were under serious pressure in that 2nd half but may have held out were it not for the ref. They had just scored a crucial point but the penalty was a killer blow.
They could have got a black card or two themselves they done the same amount of pulling and dragging as Mayo
AOS Colm Boyle Lee Keegan…. 3 fellas that would sour milk. Horrible footballers with their antics time and again. Cant wait for the dubs or kerry to embarrass them again. Always good for a laugh when mayo are put back in their box Spectacularly every year. Hope they get Monaghan…… Up the Farney
Hon Mayo. Haters gonna hate. Think we beat yiz in clones already this year.
Why would they sour milk , they are top players & all stars , how many have monaghan? Be careful what you wish for , we would hammer ye
It’s looking like Longford rather than Monaghan with 6 mins to go!
LOL liam!!! Go on longford
Don’t think we can get monaghan now
Aidan O’Shea, an embarassment to real GAA players all over the world!
Time for the anti-Mayo keyboard warrior tramps to get typing!
Are there alot of tramps on the streets of Ireland with anti Mayo agendas that have access to the Internet? I would argue that there aren’t.
In between the gaa and Enda Kenny! What chance there aren’t??
And the ‘tramps’ you are on about are referred to as the homeless whereas I’ve met plenty of ‘tramps’ that live in flats or houses have jobs and have plenty of Internet access that come on here or hoganstand and call an amateur gaa player a tramp and that extends to all counties!
Mayo have been without doubt the most supported county by neutrals for the last few years… But its clowns like you that make me have a lot less sympathy for Mayo when they inevitably sh*t their togs at the business end of the championship year in year out!
Most supported teams? Mayo are one of the most hated team in Ireland. Look at the
Amount of comments on this thread for a qualifier. All anti Mayo. Your pathetic childish comment reinforces it you waking cliche.
Ah lad, Dont be bitter, your great grandchildren will get to hear of how Mayo won an All Ireland over a century before and how they bottled every attempt since…. Look forward to seeing Dublin sending Mayo packing again… and im sure it hurts more every year ;-)
Mayo were everyone’s second team for a long time, but now they’ve built a reputation as bottleless divers that will blame the manager when things go wrong.
Sure they won’t bate shit out of a shed after tonight, pure muck o Shea is with his big Castlebar handball alley head on him
Mayo cheating their way to the top…. anyways Dublin will knock spots off them when the time comes.
If Monaghan won they’d have slaughtered Mayo. If my aunt had balls….
Elaborate Damien…
Haha an NFL contract…..my hairy arse…..hilarious….the man can hardly run
I know, its a bit like the Ronan O’ Gara to the Miami Dolphin’s rumour all those years ago or about as likely as me not destroying the toilet bowl after a night out on the Guinness.
Was it same ref that gave Gooch penalty for falling over laces v limerick if so time to give him red card.
Missed the game today as I had to bring my dog to the vet, but having been at every Connacht final, all Ireland semi final and all Ireland final since I was 22 I can safely say I am one of the biggest Mayo fans going, I’d be shocked if he did dive!!! To see some of the hits the man took while turning down a full time contact in the NFL I can’t see how any Fermanagh man could take him down
His contract should be in Hollywood. After all he told us he was born for the big time.
Prepare to be shocked then.
And what contract did be turn down wjth the NFL?!
He turned down a rookie contract to play grind iron as a running back, 100,000 dollars a year but he said no, he had a real feeling that Sam was coming home to Mayo in 16
Where’d ya get that nugget of information from?!
Too slow to be a running back.
His brother goes out with my cousin
He’ll probably dive as well.
Ah well then it must be true…
I don’t see why his brother would lie to my cousin, he is a fairly big lad, and I say o,Shea would have teams falling over themselves to sign him, a PR teams dream…
So he spent a few days running drills when filming the Toughest Trade and was offered a 100k contract off the back of it? Right you are then….
Your fairly naive if you think they showed his best bits in that show!! Of course they will keep a few bits back, especially when a team shows an interest in signing him as a pro!!! Why would you show the other teams what he has in his locker??? Plus 100k might buy and sell you over and over again but in the states it’s chump change, so not much of a risk
I’m naive?! Says the man that believe AOS was offered an NFL contract with zero experience of the game! This just keeps getting better…
Pretty sure they would try their utmost to make him come across well. The whole point of the show is to make gaa players look good when playing a new sport to show they are just as good athletes as the pros. It would make no sense to make him look bad. What gaa player would sign up to something like that?
Just shows you the treatment usually handed out to him when the lad hadn’t watched the match couldn’t believe it!
The times AOS ran at the combine he was at were too slow for a tight end never mind a running back and he has no knowledge of the game. But since the ppl of Mayo believe yee are gonna win Sam every year then yee must be a gullible bunch!
Frankie you’re a troll. That’s utter nonsense. For one thing 100k is well below the NFL league minimum.
The sad thing is, I don’t think he’s a troll, I think he genuinely believes it to be true!
Aideen, he is winding you up and making a mug of you. Stop responding.
Feck them Aideen, Up The Dubs
Frankie stop talking out of your fart hole….
Should be ashamed of himself