They’ve been ignored yet again for the official prizes, so the time has come to celebrate props and their thunderous impact on the sport, by launching awards solely for the unheralded titans.
And it is an important subject. Frankly, it is mind-boggling that 117 players have been shortlisted for World Rugby’s Player of the Year award and never once has a prop been among them. That is a blatant misrepresentation of the value of these sturdy cornerstones of the sport.
So, why have they been so criminally overlooked? Perhaps they are not deemed box-office enough. Playmakers, finishers and dynamo back-rowers tend to dominate the nominations, year after year.
The judges should venture over to France, to gain a different perspective. There, the top props are deified. On one recent occasion at La Rochelle, the mighty tighthead Uini Atonio had been replaced but was then called upon to do another brief stint while a head injury assessment…
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