Two out of the top three are Foreign.

I find it very strange that two out of the top three players in the Aviva premiership were NEQ players. Although I think that the top three are probably right I would have had Robshaw as the winner and not Nick Evans. What does this say about the English league though ? Are there too many NEQ players blocking the English talent ? Has there been an overall best first fifteen ? How many NEQ players are in it ? On a plus side, I am really glad that Farrell has won the young player award if anybody deserved this title it was him, I just hope that the typical British press are not circling ready for any demise and just let him be, this lad has what it takes to be special.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17940094

Dowlais to be honest in the Rabo the top three players would probably be Nacewa, Pinear, and Visser. So that would be two out of three that are NIQ, NSQ, NWQ, NitQ (non-italian). So we are no better.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Dowlais to be honest in the Rabo the top three players would probably be Nacewa, Pinear, and Visser. So that would be two out of three that are NIQ, NSQ, NWQ, NitQ (non-italian). So we are no better.

Yeh, but us Celts are more biased towards our own, so as you rightly point out, those three could be, but we would probably pick, Leo Cullen, Ryan Jones and George North.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Dowlais to be honest in the Rabo the top three players would probably be Nacewa, Pinear, and Visser. So that would be two out of three that are NIQ, NSQ, NWQ, NitQ (non-italian). So we are no better.

Well 4 Pro12 player were named for European player of the year and 3 were Irishmen so not sure about that.

The number of foreign players is on the decrease. I don't think Nick should have got the award but there is nothing wrong with a team having a few key foreign players and that the foreign players are up for such awards implies that those playing the AP are high quality not journeymen.

Ulster have their Pienaars, Leinster their Nacewas, the Blues have Rush, the Ospreys HAD Bowe and Morgan. We have Evans

Geoff - yeah forgot Ferris, but some people like Kearney, North etc didn't really get too much Rabo game time, so can't really be counted. Anyway, I was just pointing out we are no less infected by overseas than the Jeff.

Fair enough but in Ireland anyway the numbers are falling - from a maximum of 18 this year to 12, possibly 11, next year.

This is the combined total for the 3 senior Provinces.
The move is most defintely downward

Geoff - the numbers are dropping, which means the standard of NQ players will increase. Which will mean that they are more likely to be in the top five players come the end of the season.

Chequered - The Scarlets had Ben Morgan, that is why he is so good, if the Ospreys had him he would still be a bit on the pudgy side.

Of our first choice 15, 12 are English. In the 23, 18 or 19 are. Leicester are slightly less so, but not much (I think 9/15, 15 or 16/23) and even Sarries, so called Saffacens, put out an English backline from 10 upwards. If the two teams in the AP final rely so heavily on English talent, hopefully every club will follow suit

Whoops, my mistake