Champions Cup: Two Cents Rugby picks his top five players of the quarter-finals
With the Champions Cup quarter-finals having come to a close, Two Cents Rugby picks five of the best players from the action across Europe.
In no particular order, the YouTube star selected three backs and two forwards, so without further ado, here they are. Have your say in the comments.
Two Cent Rugby’s five top players
Garry Ringrose (Leinster)
Wasn’t this guy supposed to be injured? The last time I saw anything from him was when half the Irish squad turned up at his house with drinks in hand.
There certainly wasn’t any sign of rust or discomfort from the Leinster midfielder as he was an easy choice for man-of-the-match after bagging a couple of tries on his return to complement his highlight reel moments.
That step off his right foot for the opener cut a hole right through the Leicester defence. The second was less strenuous, finishing a Jimmy O’Brien break, but the support line was still important for him to run.
My favourite moment for Ringrose though was his line break between two Leicester’s defenders before drawing the final man and passing to Jamison Gibson-Park for the assist – all while his team were a man down as well with a yellow card. He and O’Brien combined for over 40% of Leinster’s overall run metres. Very dangerous.
Thomas Ramos (Toulouse)
Ramos continued his form from the Six Nations into the business end of the Champions Cup.
Admittedly he got a first hand look at just how quick the Sharks’ Grant Williams is as the scrum-half flew past him. But Ramos showed us his own skill set in return, including his ability to apparently coolly football pass a loose ball through to his teammate while under immense pressure.
He had a hand in the build-up to a couple of the Toulouse tries, but the most outstanding was probably the 50:22 he kicked which directly led to Peato Mauvaka’s opportunity to go over.
He finished the game with a whopping 29 points, including his own two tries and 19 points from the boot. Truly outstanding.
Jack Nowell (Exeter)
I feel like I’m going heavy on the backs here, but with the way the likes of Olly Woodburn, Suleiman Hartzenberg and Damian Willemse attacked this game it’s hard not to. Plus, there’s always the talk of Nowell hitting like a flanker so we’ll call this pick some kind of hybrid.
There’s no way a winger should be able to pick and go through two of the Stormers forwards like Nowell did for his 22nd minute try, but he made it look relatively easy.
Showed commitment to track back for the Hartzenberg try when other players may have given up. With the Stormers missing the conversion he saved his team two points with the attempted try-saver.
He’s even credited with winning three turnovers which was the most in the match. Proper effort.
Jack Conan (Leinster)
It can’t all be about the flashy backs, we have to give some credit to the boys up front and Conan in the loose for Leinster put in a huge shift for his team.
Considering how well Leicester’s Jasper Wiese had played the week before, the pressure was on Conan to help his team win the battle up front.
A brief look back at the game and Conan pops up constantly in his number eight jersey, especially at ruck time he’s there securing ball and cleaning out.
In terms of his ball in hand work he finished with more metres carried than any forward in the game with 40. Add to that 10 from 10 tackles and a couple of offloads, it was pleasing to see Conan show the kind of form that had him in a British and Irish Lions jersey not that long ago.
Levani Botia (La Rochelle)
Speaking of hybrid players, La Rochelle’s Botia is probably the best example in the world right now of a player who can perform in both the forwards or the backs.
🟡 Levani Botia had some game for the #HeinekenChampionsCup holders against Saracens! #SRvSAR pic.twitter.com/CI4A0sM33s
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) April 9, 2023
He picked up man-of-the-match in his game against Saracens, largely on the back of his massive defensive shift. La Rochelle had a lot of defending to do but always looked comfortable, especially with Botia there to pinch Saracens ball, which he managed four times throughout the game.
He was also a threat on attack as he dummied his way into a game and set up Tawera Kerr-Barlow for one of his team’s two tries. Eight from eight tackles as well made it a big shift from the big man.
