On the BBC article on their team of the championship there is an option to vote for player of the championship. So far LBB has about 50% of the vote, with McCloskey 2nd on less than 20%. I think it's pretty certain that LBB will win the official award this year, which is also a public vote on the 6 nations website. I'm going to attempt to argue against that... I PUT IT TO YOU, SIR/MADAM that LBB benefits way more than the other contenders from the sheer talent of the rest of his team. They use that talent (Dupont, Ramos, Jalibert) to create space which they then either put LBB into, or kick ahead for him. He is great at getting into that space, no doubt, but if he’s on the wing for any other 6N team does anyone think he’d be close to 9 tries? In my humble, but absolutely correct opinion, Ramos would be more justified in winning PotC than LBB. In the England game 3 of LBB's much celebrated 4 tries come from French playmakers kicking ahead for him. The forth is him receiving a pass 5 metres out and dotting it down unopposed. Put another speedster in his place, say Rees-Zammit, and I reckon we'd get the same tries. Now let's look at the tournament stats for metres made and initial breaks where LBB ranks 3rd and 1st respectively. These stats appear impressive in isolation, but combine them with the fact that he doesn’t crack the top 10 of defenders beaten or post contact metres and you start to get a picture of how he is being put into space rather than busting tackles. I’m not saying the guy isn’t exceptional, his chip and chase is the best certainly in the northern hemisphere right now and he is very very very fast. But he also missed 60% of his tackles against England, and around 30% for the entire tournament. Contrast that with McCloskey. In the official 6 nations stats he is 3rd for carries, 1st for try assists, 2nd for defenders beaten, 1st for dominant contact, 1st for turnovers won, 2nd for post contact metres, and he is the only back who makes it into the top 10 of successful tackles. Across all combined statistics measured by Oval Insights, they rank him as the best player of the tournament. These are the stats of a workhorse putting in massive individual effort for the benefit of his team. He was consistently among the top three players on his team in every match but at no point in this tournament did he get player of the match for his efforts. So TLDR; my argument is LBB benefited more from his team, whereas McCloskey's team benefited more from him. McCloskey is 33, coming to the close of his career, and has had to take the long way around to get the recognition he is finally receiving. LBB is 22 and already a superstar with a bright career ahead of him who will doubtless win PotC again in future tournaments. Make the right choice, friends. Don’t vote for the flashy finisher who already has a cupboard full of silverware. Vote for the hard working underdog who's struggled for years to get where he is, with little glory to show for it. Vote McCloskey! Or Menoncello, he was class.   submitted by   /u/TheRaptorWhoSaidAlan [link]   [comments]