{"id":754999,"date":"2026-06-23T12:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754999\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T12:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:16:10","slug":"end-of-season-rugby-union-awards-best-games-players-and-more-rugby-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754999\/","title":{"rendered":"End-of-season rugby union awards: best games, players and more | Rugby union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Highs and lows of the 2025-26 European season<\/p>\n

Best games attended
1) 14 March, France 48-46 England<\/a>. Thirteen tries \u2013 including four for Louis Bielle-Biarrey \u2013 and a last-gasp winning penalty from Thomas Ramos. Truly magnifique.<\/p>\n

2) 12 June, Northampton 45-31 Leicester<\/a>. Cracking Prem semi-final atmosphere and a belting game.<\/p>\n

3) 10 April, Bath 43-41 Northampton<\/a>. Saints started brilliantly but still couldn\u2019t deny Bath a place in the Champions Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Teams of the year
1) Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles (in the Champions Cup<\/a>, not the Top 14!).
2) England\u2019s World Cup-winning Red Roses.
3) Northampton Saints.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles were unstoppable in the Champions Cup. Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Champagne moments
1) Rhys Carr\u00e9\u2019s solo try for Wales against Ireland.
2) Finn Russell\u2019s quick-thinking kick-off that led to a try for Darcy Graham and saved Scotland\u2019s bacon in Cardiff.
3) Christ Tshiunza\u2019s sidestepping try for Exeter Chiefs in their semi-final win against Bath. Wooaah!<\/p>\n

Top coaching brains
1) Phil Dowson and Sam Vesty (Northampton).
2) Rob Baxter (Exeter Chiefs).
3=) John Mitchell (England women) and Noel McNamara (Bordeaux attack coach).<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s players of the season
1) Louis Bielle-Biarrey.
2) Maxime Lucu.
3=) Tom and Jack Willis, Matthieu Jalibert.<\/p>\n

Most consistent Prem players
1) Tom Willis.
2) Henry Slade.
3=) Alex Coles and Tommy Freeman.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s players of the season
1) Meg Jones.
2) Ellie Kildunne.
3) Sophie de Goode.<\/p>\n

Best matchday experience
1) France v England, Paris. The pre-match son et lumi\u00e8re was almost as good as the game.
2) Champions Cup semi-final \u2013 Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles v Bath. Bordeaux is increasingly a must-visit European club rugby destination.
3) Champions Cup final \u2013 Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles v Leinster,<\/a> Bilbao. Head to the Basque Country for the rugby and stay for the cheesecake and tortillas.
4) Women\u2019s World Cup final<\/a>, London. A high-water mark for women\u2019s rugby.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Megan Jones celebrates with fans after the Red Roses\u2019 triumph in the final at Twickenham. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Best media operation
Northampton Saints.<\/p>\n

Best interviewee
Joe Heyes (Leicester and England)<\/a>. What a top guy.<\/p>\n

Good to see \u2026
1) The return of creative running fly-halves<\/a>. For a while there we thought we\u2019d lost them.
2) Smiling faces back at Exeter Chiefs, both on the field<\/a> and on the stage<\/a> \u2026
3) More effort to promote England\u2019s second-tier Champ<\/a>. There are some wonderful clubs and rugby people outside the Prem.<\/p>\n

Could do better \u2026
1) Sending love and hugs to all at the Stade de France but being denied entry to the ground on the opening night of the Six Nations<\/a> wasn\u2019t ideal.
2) At some stage the Rugby Football Union needs to acknowledge that not picking a player or two based in France, especially in a World Cup year, is a massive own goal.
3) World Rugby is about to trial a remote \u201cTMO hub\u201d, based in Basingstoke, to \u201cimprove\u201d decision-making in this summer\u2019s second-tier Nations Cup and World U20 tournament. The \u201crobot ref\u201d era draws ever closer.<\/p>\n

Most inspirational rugby people
1=) Lewis Moody, Ed Slater, Matt Hampson.<\/p>\n

Lewis Moody was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last year. Photograph: Joe Giddens\/PA<\/p>\n

Gone but not forgotten \u2026
Warren Abrahams, Shane Christie, John Doubleday, Matt Gallagher, Scott Hastings, Fred Howard, Brian Jones, Arthur Lewis, Ian McCrae, Matt Salter, Fergus Slattery, M J K \u201cMike\u201d Smith, Roger Spurrell, Peter Squires, Mike \u201cSpike\u201d Watkins, Alex Wyllie.<\/p>\n

Most looking forward to in 2026-27?
1) Everyone in Welsh rugby finally agreeing on the best collective way forward.
2) Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry, AKA the upcoming full tour of South Africa by New Zealand.
3) Northampton Saints drawing either Toulouse or Bordeaux at home in the Champions Cup pool stages.
4) Where Shaun Edwards \u2013 seven Six Nations titles and counting \u2013 goes next.<\/p>\n

This is an extract from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To subscribe just visit this page<\/a> and follow the instructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highs and lows of the 2025-26 European season Best games attended1) 14 March, France 48-46 England. Thirteen tries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-754999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}