Find out which players
ranked highest in the Opta Index to earn selection in our first
Team of the Week of 2026.
From a blizzard in Belfast to South African sunshine, the new
year saw its first rugby action over the weekend and there was a
feast of excellent attacking rugby on show.
Northampton, Stade Rochelais, Montpellier and Bordeaux-Begles
all hit a half century of points but were those free-scoring
performances enough to see their players rewarded with a spot in
this week’s European Club Rugby Team of the Week?
Here, we break down the selected XV, alongside Opta’s Star
Player of the Week and several other standout performers who forced
their way into the lineup.
Opta’s
Star Player of the Week
Having topped the rankings after the opening round of the
Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, Matthieu Jalibert
has done so again, making him our first Star Player of 2026.
The Bordeaux-Begles playmaker has been in the form of his life
this season and showed his class once again against Racing 92 on
Saturday, scoring a try and assisting a further two as his side
recorded a resounding win.
He carried the ball 20 times – more than any back across the Big
Three leagues over the weekend – while also registering a
joint-high four offloads. No fly-half matched his totals for metres
gained (88), line breaks (two) or defenders beaten (10), further
highlighting his all-round influence.
As always, his distribution and ability to put the players
around him into space was excellent. He assisted five line breaks,
more than any other player across the TOP 14, Premiership Rugby or
the URC at the weekend. It’s the second time he’s assisted 5+ line
breaks in a game this season; no other player has managed that feat
more than once.
The Best
of the Rest
Our two wingers – Jamie Dobie
and Elliott Obatoyinbo – made
four line breaks at the weekend, with George Hendy and Kalaveti
Ravouvou the only other players to equal that across the Big Three
leagues.
Dobie and Obatoyinbo recorded similar stats for Glasgow and
Newcastle respectively, both making 13 carries, gaining over 100
metres and beating five defenders in addition to their impressive
line breaks tally. Dobie added two tries and an assist against
Zebre, while Obatoyinbo’s tally of 12 tackles was at least two more
than any other winger.
In the pack, Alex Coles and
Barnabe Massa both dotted down three times, two of
just three players to score a hat-trick over the weekend, alongside
Montpellier hooker Christopher Tolofua.
Coles’ hat-trick was the first by a second row in Prem Rugby
since Jonny Hill managed it for Exeter Chiefs in August 2020, while
the Saints lock also assisted a try to cap off an excellent
performance.
Similarly, Coles’ teammate in the Northampton engine room,
Danilo Fischetti scored twice for
Saints against Harlequins. In doing so, he became just the second
prop in the English top flight to score more than once in a match
this season after Thomas du Toit who managed it for Bath, against
Northampton, just a week earlier.
In the back row, Sam Simmonds
gained the most metres of any forward across the Big Three leagues
(108) while Levani Botia made the most line breaks
of any forward (3) and was one of just six to both score and assist
a try at the weekend.
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