Eight Irish Players Named In Fan’s Guinness Men’s Six Nations Team Of The Championship

Eight Irish players have been named in the 2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Team of the Championship with five forward and three backs included.

The process of creating an initial shortlist was shaped by identifying the top-performing players per position – thanks to performance data provided by Stats Perform – before fans were given the responsibility of voting for the standout player in each position.

2024 Team of the Championship – stats by Opta

15 Thomas Ramos was the Guinness Men’s Six Nations top points scorer for the second year in a row (63 in 2024, 84 in 2023). Only three other players have scored 60+ points for Les Bleus in a single Championship (Gerald Merceron – 80 in 2002, Camille Lopez – 67 in 2017, Morgan Parra – 61 in 2010).

14 Duhan van der Merwe was the joint-top try-scorer (along with Dan Sheehan), with his tally of five the joint-most by a Scotland player in a campaign, to go with the five he scored in 2021.

13 Bundee Aki made the most metres in contact of any player during this year’s Guinness Men’s Six Nations (144) and also made the most carries overall of any centre in the Championship (50).

12 Tommaso Menoncello, this year’s Guinness Player of the Championship, made more dominant tackles than any other back this year, and also won the joint-most turnovers of any back (4, equal with his centre partner Juan Ignacio Brex).

11 James Lowe was the only player to gain 300+ carry metres this year (370), and gained over five times as many kicking metres as any other winger in the Championship (1712), in addition to scoring four tries.

10 Finn Russell was successful from 22 of his 23 place-kick attempts (96%) – the highest success rate of any player with over five attempts. He was also the only player to make two 50/22 kicks.

9 Jamison Gibson-Park provided the most try assists of any scrum-half (3) and ranked first amongst scrum-halves for carries made (31).

1 Andrew Porter won twice as many turnovers as any other prop (4) and ranked first among props for attacking rucks hit in the Championship (117).

2 Dan Sheehan was the joint-top try scorer this year (5, also Duhan van der Merwe), the most by any forward in any edition of the Championship.

3 Uini Atonio was one of two props to make two turnover-winning tackles in the 2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations (also Andrew Porter) and had the highest dominant carry rate of any tighthead (17%, min. 20 carries).

4 Tadhg Beirne stole the joint-most lineouts of any player (3, also Ollie Chessum) and was the only lock to score multiple tries (2) or make multiple line breaks (4) in the Championship.

5 Joe McCarthy committed 2+ opposition tacklers from a greater share of his carries than any other player (83%, min.10 carries) and also ranked first for defenders beaten (8) and offloads (3) amongst locks in the Championship.

6 Caelan Doris ranked third for both attacking (131) and defensive (50) ruck hits, with his 90.1% attacking ruck efficiency rate being the second best of any player this year (min.100 hits).

7 Michele Lamaro made 103 tackles in 2024, the most of any player. In fact, it was the most by any player in any edition of the Championship, surpassing Jonny Gray’s tally of 100 in 2018.

8 Ben Earl made the most carries of any player (73) and beat the most defenders of any forward (24). Billy Vunipola is the only forward from any nation to beat more in a single campaign (25 in 2016).