Alun Wyn Jones has been officially named as Welsh rugby’s best player for the second time in his career, crowning a wonderful 12 months for Wales’ Grand Slam captain.
The 33-year-old talisman was the runaway winner of the Welsh Rugby Writers’ Association player-of-the-year award, repeating his success of 2014.
Liam Williams was runner-up.
Williams enjoyed a memorable campaign himself, one that saw him win the Slam with Wales and lift the English Premiership title and Heineken Champions Cup with Saracens. He played 23 matches and walked off the field a winner in 22 of them. Really, the back-three star could not have done any more.
But Jones still finished out on his own in the voting.
Wales World Cup hopeful Owen Lane took the bauble for the Welsh game’s most promising player, edging out Josh Adams. The hard-running Lane becomes the third Cardiff Blue to take the title in four seasons, following Ellis Jenkins (2016) and Jarrod Evans (2018).
The main award is the latest to fall to Jones in a year of sweet triumph for the Osprey.
He drove Wales through an unbeaten campaign with a series of inspirational performances, none more impressive than his effort in the key Six Nations encounter with England, when he tilted the match his side’s way with off-the-scale leadership.
Memories are still fresh of the double-fist pump and roar to the crowd after that 21-13 success in Cardiff. It was the roar of a colossus, and, it turns out, the roar of Welsh rugby’s player of the season.
Less than a month later he returned to the Principality Stadium to produce a towering performance against Ireland, involving 19 tackles and relentless carrying, which was all the more remarkable as he had suffered a knee injury early in the game.
He was duly acknowledged as Six Nations player of the tournament — of course he was.
The former Swansea RFC man had previously lifted Wales to notable victories over Australia and South Africa, with the success against the Wallabies ending a Welsh losing streak in the fixture that had extended to 13 games.
Further acknowledgement that he is operating at the peak of his powers came when Rugby World magazine named his as the best player in the world.
Williams’ exploits meant there was an alternative to Jones in the best Welsh player-of-the-season stakes.
But there was always a suspicion it would be an “open and shut” case in the law graduate’s favour.
