The most impressive player from each team you've played this season

What it says on the tin. Inspired by the Pro12s tweet to highlight an opposition player who caught your eye. For me, an Ulster fan;

Munster; Ian Keatley. Keatleys running game created a lot more space for the men around him- ROG coming on at 10 shifting him to fullback was a decisive factor in a one-point home win. With ROG off form and Keatley hot, it may have been a different result if it was Keatley looking for the late drop goal instead of O'Gara the result may have been different.
Leinster;Sean Cronin. To the fore in a late fightback in the RDS.
Connacht; Kieran Marmion. Annoying wee bollox made a mess of lots of our possession while using the meagre amount they won very well.

Treviso; Brendan Williams and Zebre; Sinoti Sinoti
We struggled against the Italian sides this year, mainly because we seemed to take them for granted and the linespeed and defensive organisation was miles behind what it was for the interpros or Heineken Cup games. Their flyers out wide made a lot of line breaks as we chased kicks poorly and left our wingers too isolated in defence.

Ospreys; Ryan Bevington caused massive problems in the scrum for out of position Tom Court when our tighthead injury crisis was at it's worst mid-season. But still somehow had energy enough to score one of the breakout tries of the season to give Ospreys a hard-earned and deserved win.
Dragons; Jonathan Evans. Dragons were well beaten in both games they played Ulster with their pack under the cosh, so scrum-half Evans did well to move the ball away quickly and accurately. A tidy wee player.
Cardiff Blues; Oh dear... Cardiff were very disappointing opponents this year mainly due to their meek surrender in both games. We scored a few big wins against Welsh regions this year but they were good battles with the Scarlets and Dragons who fought hard in a losing cause. Cardiff flew the white flag in both games within the first half. Rhys Patchell has caught my eye as a player to watch. A rough diamond in a very disappointing side.
Scarlets; Jacobie Adriaanse. Baffling decision to start Samson Lee ahead of this man in the playoffs. When he came off the bench in the playoffs, the Scarlets scrum got on top after being in reverse gear all night and they managed to mount a fightback to restore some dignity to the scoreline. When he came off at Ravenhill in the league, the Scarlets scrum went from parity to pisstake and we marched them over for a penalty try. They finally have a good scrummaging tighthead, now they need to use him.

Glasgow; Easy. Niko Matawalu. Talented b*stard made Ruan look stupid at Scoutstoun. Gem of a player.
Edinburgh; Edinburgh had a pish season, but probably put in their best performance of the season to get a deserved win over us, where they looked like a different team. They battled very hard from 1-15 and their industry was epitomised by the excellent Stuart McInally.

Munster: Keatley. Great performance from him at murrayfield in the opening game of the season.
Ulster: Stuart Olding or Jared Payne. Luke Marshall was supposed to be the chosen one, but Oldings come out of nowhere in the eyes of non ulstermen.
Connacht: Vainikolo, Henshaw or Parks.
Leinster: Darcy was pretty good at murrayfield.
Ospreys: Matthew Morgan. About the only good thing they had going when they came up our way. Excellent again in the away fixture
Cardiff: Patchell. Cool as a cucumber when the beat us at home
Scarlets: Shingler. Work rate totally eclipsed any of our guys in both fixtures
Dragons: Prydie. Emerged as a real points machine with his move along the coast. In previosu years ive liked Adam Hughes, but I never saw him this season.
Treviso: Barbieri. Sensational season.
Zebre: Sinoti Sinoti. Such a heartwarming tale of a man able to overcome his incredibly short legs to be the only serious threat in their backline. (seriously, his legs are really weird)
Glasgow: Wilson.

Can't remember performances in the specific games against my team, but from the season in general

Munster: POC - His comeback games where just phenomenal, a completely different Munster

Ulster - Nick Williams, barrelling people over

Leinster - Madigan, no explanation needed

Ospreys - Bevington, some exceptional performances in the second half of the year

Scarlets - Samson Lee, stabilising a poor scrum pretty well for a 20 year old! Some excellent performances

Dragons - Dan Evans, really impressed by him at 10 in some of the games I saw this season

Glasgow - Matawalu, ludicrous

Treviso - Barbieri, most tries for a forward I think, can't believe his didn't play more for Italy

In reverse order of matches (and my memory gets worse )

Harlequins - Danny Care. Without him Quins had no attacking impetus.
London Irish - Marland Yarde. Strong, quick, eager for work. While all around him faltered he kept going forward.
Wasps - In a weakened team that was steamrollered and saw Wade leave after 20mins, Elliot Daly looked class.
Sale Sharks - Sale were poor. Danny cipriani stood out for the best sidestep I have seen all season. Sadly it was to avoid making a tackle.
Saracens - Charlie Hodgson. Best stand-off I have seen this season, he pulled the strings magnificently as Sarries came back from a 17-6 half time deficit with 4 tries in the second half.
London Welsh - Gordon Ross. Metronomic.
Toulouse - Louis Picamoles. A beast.
Gloucester - Akapusi Qera. Kept on working.
Treviso - Luke McClean. Strong counter-attacking gave Tigers some real scares.
Bath - Stephen Donald. Ball in hand he was incredible, always probing and creating. Kicking was dire though.
Northampton - In a tight match, no-one comes to mind as standing out.
Ospreys - Biggar started well but vanished from the game after throwing an interception. In a struggling pack Ryan Jones kept on going and competing.
Exeter - No-one stood out on what was a disappointing day for the Chiefs.
Harlequins - Danny Care again. Boring I know buit deserves it just for a cheeky drop goal.
Worcester - Alex Grove. Constant threat, deserved late try.

Munster: O'Connell has to be respected from battling back from injury - he clearly expects a lot from himself and he's delivered. Casey Laulala has also been very consistent in a backline that has't always fired.

Ulster - tough - either Nick Williams for meshing brutality with a rugby brain or Luke Marshall, who has never looked out of place against any company

Leinster - that quiffy feckface Madigan, for being more talented against Scottish teams than is strictly necessary

Ospreys - Bevington or Ryan Jones - the team plays better when they play better

Scarlets - Samson Lee is a massive talent for someone who must only recently have finished doing his homework and Fenby, who has stepped up his tracking lines and positional play to great effect this year

Dragons - Dan Evans, nobody else is close to him

Treviso - either Zanni or Barbieri - both have been magnificent

Edinburgh - hmm - we know what sort of season they've had. Am trying to choose someone other than his mighty Timness, but I just can't. Matt Scott deserves an honourable mention for keeping his head when all around were clearly losing theirs.

LondonTiger wrote:In reverse order of matches (and my memory gets worse :D)

Bath - Stephen Donald. Ball in hand he was incredible, always probing and creating. Kicking was dire though.

Wow, I didn't see that coming! I'll put this down to the memory loss!

Bathite wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:In reverse order of matches (and my memory gets worse )

Bath - Stephen Donald. Ball in hand he was incredible, always probing and creating. Kicking was dire though.

Wow, I didn't see that coming! I'll put this down to the memory loss!

It was a weird game, what with all the red and yellow cards.

George Carlin wrote:Matt Scott deserves an honourable mention for keeping his head when all around were clearly losing theirs.

He was our only decent player in the derbies to be fair. Two try assists wasnt bad considering how mince everyone else was.

Think I'll agree with Notch
except for
Leinster- Madigan
Connacht Kieran Marmion
Munster - no one for me stood out, but they whole team showed up well
Cardiff Blues - was impressed by Rhys Patchell, changing foot for the drop goal showed some class under pressure.

Treviso -,although I was trying to keep an eye on Barbieri it was Brendan Williams who caught the attention, its a pity hes 34, don't know if he has another season.
Glasgow Niko Matawalu think everyone rates him


How good is Sinoti Sinoti Notch? Is he a step up or down from Fetu'u Vainikolo for Connacht?

This will challenge my fading memory, but against Edinburgh this season the following stood out for me:

Cardiff - Patchell and Paterson

Munster - Tommy O'Donnell

Leinster - Cullen (bullied the Edinburgh pack)

Ulster - Stuart Olding was excellent in defeat

Connacht - Dan Parks

Glasgow - DTH

Those are the ones I particularly remember.

Didn't realise this was Rabo Pro 12 focused.
From the Heineken Cup, we (Saints) played Ulster. Clearly, their most impressive player was Ruan Effing Pienaar. This guy is bloodygood. He is one of the most impressive players I have seen all season from any team. Wish Saints had him. He must be at Ulster for the weather..........

I didn't intend to focus solely on the Rabo, but we were so utterly dreadful in the HC this season, that each member of the opposition squad looked world class against us, so hard to pick anyone out.

Sorry 'but your season. Just turn the clock back one year.

I was going to do the Heineken Cup as well but then I realised I'd have to say something nice about a Saracens player and thought better of it

Bath - Wilson
Exeter - Arscott
Gloucester - Morgan
Harlequins - Care
Leicester - Morris
Northampton - Manoa
Saracens - Barritt
London Welsh - Stegman
Sale - Leota
Wasps - Ashley Johnson / Wade
Worcester - Percival

For me,
H-cup
Saracens, Farrell (5 out of 5 pens, missed one conversion,total 6/7, Pienaar 4/6) his kicking was excellent.

Glasgow still Matawalu

Castres Olympique, not sure, kept an eye on Pedrie Wannenburg

Saints, away no one stood out. At Ravenhill, think Stephen Myler and K Pisi did, but can't remember it that well now.

Sarries - Borthwick. Gobbing off to the ref all game, stealing lineout ball and generally making himself a nuisance.
Tigers - Ayerza/Parling. The pair dominated the scrum and lineout
Quins - Luke Wallace. Just everywhere!
Saints - Samu Manoa. didn't see the best of Saints in either match, but he stood out for his intensity.
Chiefs - Haydn Thomas. A proper niggly little ****. He is for ever making breaks and causing problems. Know from experience that you love him on your side and hate him when he's not!
Bath - Paul James. Took us apart at the scrum.
Wasps - Ashley Johnson. His ball carrying was immense, a real handful.
Irish - George Skivington. They were poor in the 3 games we beat them, but in the one we lost he stood out for his work rate, lineout and ball carrying.
Sale - Daniel Braid. Did the job of a proper 6, lots of unnoticed work at the breakdown.
Worcester - Matt Kvesic. Another young 7 who was just everywhere. If only Glaws had a 7 like him...
Welsh - Hudson Tonga'uiha. He seemed to get over the gainline every time he touched the ball.

Can't remember all the games and had to miss a few of the others (luckily Dragons v Ulster and Glasgow at home).

Anyway,

Dragons v Zebre = Can't remember. Don't think I was overly impressed by anybody.
Dragons v Blues = Rhys Patchell
Dragons v Edinburgh = Can't remember, but probably Visser for scoring.
Dragons v Bayonne = Gabirielle Lovobalavu, but I remember Tialata's awesome hit on Rob Sidoli too.
Bath v Dragons = Thatchers Gold
Dragons v Northampton = not sure. Maybe Dowson?
Dragons v Ospreys = can't remember, but remember Ross Jones having a bad game. Maybe Biggar.
Dragons v Ospreys LV = don't know.

I think for a lot of the losses I probably switch off a bit.