The Bordeaux-Bègles star was the highest-ranked player of the season according to the Opta Index. Find out who else made our 2025-26 European Club Rugby Team of the Season.
With the major European club competitions now reaching their play-off stages, and the destinations of the URC, Prem Rugby and Top 14 titles still to be decided, it is a good time to reflect on the regular season and recognise the standout performers.
Our European Club Rugby Team of the Season is selected using the Opta Index, which assigns players a score based on their actions in each match.
Twelve clubs are represented in the XV, with Union Bordeaux-Bègles, Northampton Saints and Stade Toulousain each contributing two players. with Prem Rugby the most heavily represented competition overall, providing seven members of the team.
Opta’s Star Player of the Season
In what may come as no surprise to anyone following our regular Team of the Week selections, Matthieu Jalibert was the top-scoring player according to the Opta Index across the 2025-26 season.
Jalibert was the only player to register 20+ try assists across the elite European competitions in 2025-26 (22), also chipping in with 11 tries himself. Unsurprisingly, no player bettered his overall tally of 33 try involvements.
Almost unheard of for a fly-half, Jalibert also led all players for metres gained, finishing with 1,665. The next 17 players on that list were all wingers or full-backs. No other fly-half reached 1,000 metres, while only six even managed half of Jalibert’s total.
Far from being just a strong ball carrier, Jalibert also led all players for line-break assists (39) and left opposition full-backs and wingers scrambling with a joint-high five 50/22 kicks.
Although Bordeaux-Bègles’ domestic campaign ended in disappointment after they narrowly missed out on a TOP 14 play-off place, Jalibert can be more than happy with his contributions this term, having led L’Union to a second consecutive Champions Cup crown and spearheading France to a Six Nations title in the meantime.
Tackle evasion based on 100+ tackles facedThe Best of the Rest
Thomas du Toit scored eight tries for Bath across the Prem and Champions Cup, the second-most of any prop (Giorgi Melikidze, 10), while Bevan Rodd was the only prop to average at least one offload completed per 80 minutes (1.1, min. 400 minutes).
Completing our front row is Toulouse hooker Julian Marchand, who ranked first among tight-five forwards for turnovers won per 80 minutes (1.3, minimum 800 minutes).
In our second row Ollie Chessum (105) was one of four locks to claim 100+ lineout takes from his team’s throws this season. He also recorded seven line breaks, a figure surpassed by only two locks, one of whom was Northampton’s Alex Coles, who takes the No. 4 shirt. Coles was also the top-scoring second row this season, crossing the line eight times in total.
Anchoring our scrum is Tom Willis, the only player to make 300+ carries before the end of the regular season across the major European competitions in 2025-26 (322), He also led all players for defenders beaten (125), In fact, just two other forwards broke even half as many tackles as the current Saracens and soon-to-be UBB back-row.
Tom’s older brother Jack Willis ranked third for total carries (293) and won the most turnovers of any player (30).
The last member of our back-row is one half of another set of brothers, Matt Fagerson, who ranked in the top five for both carries (12.4, fifth) and attacking ruck hits (26.2, third ) per 80 minutes among flankers in 2025-26 (min. 800 minutes).
Partnering Jalibert at half-back is Clermont Auvergne scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau, who made the most carries (157), gained the most metres (877), registered the most line breaks (14) and beat the most defenders (64) of any scrum-half this term.
Nicolas Depoortere was one of two centres to average 7+ metres gained per carry (7.1 – also Sireli Maqala, 7.4), and was one of three outside centres to reach double-digits for tries (10, level with Jeremy Ward and Henry Slade).
Joining him in the centre is Connacht’s Cathal Forde, who made the most metres in contact of any back (441). Forde also ranked in the top five for carries (210, second), metres gained (696, fourth), break assists (16, second) and tackles made (188, fifth) among 12s this term.
Of the 716 players to feature for 800+ minutes, Bristol Bears full-back Louis Rees-Zammit was the only one to average over 90 metres gained per 80 minutes (110), with our two wingers Tommy Freeman (87) and Zac Ward (84) rounding out the top three.
Ward (86%) also recorded the best gainline success rate of any player this season (min. 100 carries), with Freeman boasting the third best rate (84%, Henry Arundell – 85%).
Freeman registered the most line breaks of anyone this season (39), regularly slotting in at both centre and on the wing as Northampton Saints topped the Gallagher Prem standings for the second time in the last three seasons.
Metres gained per 80 minutes of players with 800+ minutes in 2025-26There were some players who were incredibly unlucky to have missed out on our team and if there was a bench then there would be some serious impact options to call upon.
Perhaps the most unfortunate player to miss out was Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who was one of the top ranking players overall but missed out on account of Jalibert taking the Player of the Season crown. Between them the pair featured in two thirds of our Team of the Week XVs in 2025-26, as the only players with more than five appearances in the team (Jalibert – 8, Feinberg-Mngomezulu – 6).
The Prem’s top try scorer Noah Caluori was also unlucky to miss out. This season’s breakout star was one of the best wingers in 2025-26 and along with Jalibert was the only player to be our Player of the Week more than once this season (twice each).
Davit Niniashvili was another player who narrowly missed out in the back three. Curiously, the Georgian superstar was one of the top-scoring players across the season despite never making it into one of our weekly XVs, with his incredible consistency week after week placing him high in the rankings.
In the pack, Gabriel Oghre just missed out at hooker after a fine season with Bristol, with Zander Fagerson coming close to making up a second pair of brothers in our XV.
In the back row, Fletcher Anderson also narrowly missed out on the No. 8 jersey after an incredible debut season for the Scarlets.
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Jalibert Leads Opta’s European Rugby Team of the Season Opta Analyst.
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