The OPTA statistics index rated Munster's Jeremy Loughman the top loose-head across Champions Cup rugby this season.
Those who previously have described the 28 year-old Munster player as a journeyman should wash their mouths out.
Right now where he to walk into a bar where the such Munster front-row legends as 'Killing Fields' Tom Clifford, Gerry 'Ginger' McLaughlin, Noel 'Buddha' Healy, Peter 'the Claw' Clohessy and John 'Bull' Hayes were having a pint, the likelihood is Loughman would be met with a standing ovation.
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Munster may have only posted one win and win in four pool games and lost at Northampton in the round of 16 but Loughman was on the field through 343 of those 400 minutes.
His 57 tackles in five games is a tremendous return for a player in the no1 shirt and all the more spectacular for a 90 percent tackle-success rate while his 29 carries was a decent contribution on the other side of the ball.
Perhaps though, they are just the secondary stats as Loughman's primary job is in the scrum where he got to grips with a succession of tight-heads without giving away a single penalty.
There have been five Ireland caps for Loughman in total, his debut against Fiji in 2022, RWC 2023 friendlies against England and Samoa, Romania at RWC2023 and Italy in the 2024 Six Nations.
They came with just one start (against Fiji) and totalled just 185 minutes but, ahead of both Andrew Porter and Cian Healy here in this measure, this could be the nudge Andy Farrell needed to take Munster star to South Africa this summer.
Consider this too; that's also Loughman starting both headline-making Munster victories in South Africa earlier this year, against Bulls in Pretoria and Lions in Johannesburg.
The question as to why Leinster's Porter lost out isn't fully explained and it must have been a close run given Porter's astonishing 151 tackles across eight games and 521 minutes but most likely comes down to his scrummaging technique which doesn't always sit well with referees.
Loughman, meanwhile, would be scrummaging here alongside Toulouse hooker Peatu Mauvaka whose stunning contribution to the French side's scoring tally, five tries, four assists and a decent six turnovers was complemented by his throwing for one of the competition's best line-outs.
2023/24 OPTA Champions Cup Team of the Tournament: 15. Romain Burus (Bordeaux-Begles); 14. Damian Penaud (Bordeaux-Begles), 13. Tommy Freeman (Leicester Tigers), 12. David Kriel (Bulls), 11. JAMES LOWE (Leinster); 10. Marcus Smith (Harlequins), 9. Antoine Dupont (Toulouse); 1. Jeremy Loughman (Munster), 2. Peato Mauvaka (Toulouse), 3. Tevita Tatufu (Bordeaux-Begles), 4. JOE McCARTHY (Leinster), 5. Emmanuel Meaffou (Toulouse), 6. Jack Willis (Toulouse), 7. Will Evans (Harlequins), 8. CAELAN DORIS (Leinster)
2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Team of the Championship: 15. Thomas Ramos (France, Toulouse); 14. Duhan Van Der Merwe (Scotland, Edinburgh), 13. Bundee Aki (Ireland, Connacht), 12. Tommaso Menoncello (Italy, Benneton Rugby), 11. JAMES LOWE (Ireland, Leinster); 10. Finn Russell (Scotland, Bath Rugby); 1. Andrew Porter (Ireland, Leinster), 2. Dan Sheehan (Ireland, Leinster), 3. Uini Atonio (France, La Rochelle), 4. Tadhg Beirne (Ireland, Munster), 5. JOE McCARTHY (Ireland, Leinster), 6. CAELAN DORIS (Ireland, Leinster), 7. Michele Lamaro (Italy, Benetton Rugby), 8. Ben Earl (England, Saracens)
Tevita Tatafu is Bordeaux-Begles' tight-head, a 28 year-old, six-foot, 19-stone Japanese international who Europe can expect to hear much more about next term. His club will be one of the 2024/25 favourites alongside those usual suspects Leinster, Toulouse and La Rochelle.
Joe McCarthy's double-up as part of the Six Nations and the OPTA Champions Cup teams is a wonderful achievement for a 23 year-old who so successfully planted his imprint on the season.
A Champions Cup contribution of 64 carries for just over 120 metres came in the heaviest traffic, this boy doesn't hang out on the wings, he is where the big beasts are; while smashing over 30 defensive rucks and winning eight turnovers is hard work on the other side of the ball.
Toulouse's Emmanuel Maffou is also in the second-row and were he not to be spoken about in direct relation to McCarthy would be considered 'young' but at 25 he is the elder statesman.
Curiously this is a New Zealand-born player whose parents moved to Australia when he was young and through 2017 and 2018 was struggling to get picked up by an Aussie professional club.
Recommended to Toulouse following being seen playing Rugby League, he went to France in December 2018 to join their Academy...five years later he is a France international.
The OPTA service had little hesitation in picking Jack Willis at no6, his 29 tackles in the Champions Cup final alone were demonstration of just how vital he is to their scheme of things.
The picking of Harlequins-based Will Evans was interesting, possibly down to what the perception of a no7 should and shouldn't do - certainly the 27 year old's 2023/24 season stats show he is a pest at the breakdown.
The 199 carries for 299 metres is impressive, the 332 tackles with 50 missed is a sign of a no7 racing about, the winning 32 turnovers is cutting edge, while the 13 penalties conceded show referees think he pushes boundaries!
The imperious Ireland captain-in-waiting Caelan Doris picks up the no8 shirt, well deserved and a better decision than the fudge used by the Six Nations XV which moved him to no6 to make way for England's honest, hard-working Ben Earl.
Doris hasn't been beaten in a one-on-one by any of the highly-rated No8's this season and has bettered Gregory Alldritt twice last season, the Six Nations game in Marseille and the Champions Cup semi-final with La Rochelle (Alldritt missed the pool game earlier in the season.
When it came to the Champions Cup Doris was both Leinster's top carrier with 106 runs (for just under 350 metres) and top tackler by some distance with 92 ahead of Ryan Baird's 71.
There is no questioning Antoine Dupont taking the no9 shirt, the man whom the Toulouse forwards refer to as 'the Alien' simply does things that are out of this world.
If there was one criticism of his club rugby it was that Leinster had his number in the past, that can't be said now.
He had played the Irish province eight times previously and only won once, a match in which he came on as a sub with 28 minutes to play.
Last Saturday, he was masterful in an attack and defence, central to Toulouse's win, something acknowledged by his taking the Man of the Match award - there wasn't even another contender.
Putting Marcus Smith in at out-half was a maybe comment on Romain Ntamack injury-blighted season, Ross Byrne's stuttering campaign, Owen Farrll's problems, Finn Russell's Bath who exited tamely to Exeter in the Last 16 and Paolo Garbisi toiling away in the Challenge Cup with Montpellier.
Smith kept free-scoring Harlequins ticking over as they posted Champions Cup wins over Racing, Cardiff, Ulster, Glasgow and Bordeaux but, interestingly, they were no match for Toulouse twice, losing their Round 2 game 19-47 and their semi-final 26-38.
It is hard to know how much of a consolation it will be to James Lowe to think the stats have him as so valuable and first-choice left winger, while it is very much to his credit he is one of three players to have made both the 2023/24 Six Nation and the Champions Cup teams.
His six tries (cruelly denied one in the final too), 11 line-breaks for 430 metres from the relatively low 69 carries in just six games is scorched earth stuff but may just be the icing that fell off the cake following his yellow card in extra-time in the final.
David Kriel stands out among the selections here in that he is South African and with Bulls, a 25 year-old who played just four 2023/24 Champions Cup games but was on the winning side each time, against Saracens, Bristol, Bordeaux-Begles and Munster.
His six-four, 16-stone frame proved quite the fit on both sides of the ball and Ireland can expect to see Kriel, who can operate at either first and a second-centre, in a Springbok shirt this summer.
Leicester Tigers Tommy Freeman is probably more familiar to Irish eyes operating as an England right-winger but the 23 year-old was dropped into second-centre for four of the Tigers seven games; for example, he wore the no14 shirt against Munster, the no13 against Leinster.
Freeman is fast, is brave under the high-ball but Robbie Henshaw, getting stronger and stronger all season following his return from myriad injuries and setbacks and posting 77 carries, 289 metres and 60 tackles, is unlucky to have been touched out.
Damian Penaud has switched to Bordeaux-Begles following a stellar time at Clermont and proved, albeit in a smallish window, he remains one of the smoothest try-scoring wingers to have played the professional game.
He bagged tries in three of the four games he played, scoring against Connacht, Bristol and posting two against Saracens with his fourth appearance coming in the Round of 16 win over Saracens.
Likewise his teammate Romain Buros gets the OPTA nod albeit from six games before Bordeaux-Begles's campaign came to a halt at home to Harlequins in the quarter-final. Buros crossed for five tries.
But, again, it hard not to see this decision as tough on Toulouse's Scot, Blair Kinghorn who played all but 34 minutes of their campaign, contributed 59 points, was outstanding in the air and made 88 carries, beating 20 defenders for 575 metres.
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