European Rugby Champions Cup Awards for 2014-15

The 2014-15 European Rugby Champions Cup provided months of entertainment and fascinating rugby before Toulon's 24-18 victory over Clermont Auvergne on Saturday. Here, Bleacher Report dishes out the awards for the tournament, with honourable mentions, and, in one case, a dishonourable mention.

The five categories are:

Most Disappointing Team of the Tournament

Best Team Performance of the Tournament

Best Match of the Tournament

Player of the Tournament

Try of the Tournament

Toulouse secure this dubious honour for under-achievement after spectacularly imploding from a commanding position. The French giants sat rosily at the top of Pool 4 in December with four wins from four, before being crushed at home by Bath, and then losing 27-26 to a Montpellier side who had lost their previous five in the competition.

Toulouse’s European rugby glory days of the 2000s may be behind them, but they can still call upon the likes of France captain Thierry Dusautoir, Louis Picamoles, Yoann Huget, Maxime Medard and many more.

Toulouse, without question, were the biggest disappointment of the inaugural European Champions Cup.

Dishonourable mention: Montpellier, for coming bottom of their pool after being runners-up in the Top 14 regular season last year.

Clermont Auvergne were the obvious choice after they hammered English champions Northampton Saints 37-5 at the Stade Marcel Michelin. Up 27-0 at half-time, the French side ran in four tries: a brace from Noa Nakaitaci, and one each from Wesley Fofana and Nick Abendanon. Even the sin-binning of Julien Bonnaire did nothing to diminish their superiority.

Honourable mention: Toulouse vs Bath. After a woeful start to the campaign, Bath needed a bonus-point win. Outstanding performances from Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph brought free-flowing Bath back to life in Pool 4 with an 18-35 win.

Bath, with their attractive style of rugby, were involved in two of the best matches of the tournament, but their 20-15 win against Glasgow claims the honour. This is because of how the match sea-sawed (Glasgow were 12-6 up after 50 minutes), what was at stake and the fact that Glasgow were camped on the Bath line in the final minutes looking for a try that would have seen them top the pool.

Further drama stemmed from the outcome of the pool’s parallel fixture, which ended Montpellier 27-26 Toulouse. Had Toulouse prevailed in this thrilling affair, they would have gone through as pool winners. 

Add in a superb team try from Glasgow’s Richie Vernon, and this was European rugby at its best.

Honourable Mention: Toulouse 18-35 Bath. A fast start, superb tries and a major European upset made this a classic.

Abendanon has been inspired by playing in France this season, and he was, over the course of the Champions Cup season, its finest player. Against Saracens in the pool stage, The Times’ Alex Lowe tweeted: “Nick Abendanon is carving it up in France. Man of the match v Saracens and already a crowd favourite at Clermont. Under-valued by England.”

Abendanon was also Man of the Match against Northampton in the quarter-final in his best performance of the season. A solid showing in the semi against Saracens was followed by a mixed game in the final against Toulon. Despite missing a couple of tackles and kicking away the possession that led to Mathieu Bastareaud’s score, Abendanon’s try (see above) was astonishing for its instinct, vision, flair and execution.

Abendanon, to cap it all, was named 2015 European Player of the Year on Tuesday night.

Try of the Tournament was the toughest decision of them all. Juan Imhoff takes it for sheer individual brilliance and for the distance he ran with the ball to score.

Honourable mention: Mamuka Gorgodze: (Toulon vs Ulster)

Best of the rest:

Nick Abendanon: Clermont Auvergne vs Toulon

Drew Mitchell: Toulon vs Clermont Auvergne

Francios Louw: (Toulouse vs Bath)

George Ford: (Leinster vs Bath)

Leroy Houston: (Montpellier vs Bath)

Bryan Habana: (Toulon vs Ulster)

Mark Bennett: (Glasgow Warriors vs Bath)

Richie Vernon: (Bath vs Glasgow Warriors)