Marc Sneyd has joined Sean Long as the second player to have won the Lance Todd Trophy three times.
It was little consolation on Saturday afternoon at Wembley Stadium for the famously understated Warrington Wolves playmaker, in stark contrast to the joy he experienced in each of his previous player of the match performances in the Challenge Cup Final, for Hull FC in their consecutive victories over Warrington and Wigan in 2016 and 2017.
But the 34-year-old was hailed as a worthy winner of Rugby League’s oldest individual award even by his opponents, with Hull KR head coach Willie Peters leading the praise for his brilliant kicking performance in the Wembley rain – which came after Sneyd had defied a fractured cheekbone to lead the Wolves to Wembley in their semi final victory over Leigh Leopards, and only three months after he joined Warrington from struggling Salford Red Devils.
Sneyd won 31 of the 37 votes cast by members of the media in the Wembley press box, maintaining the tradition of the award being decided by members of the Rugby League Writers and Broadcasters Association as a result of Lance Todd’s role as a BBC commentator.
The votes were counted in the last two minutes of the match, immediately after Mikey Lewis’s match-winning conversion – and it was Lewis who received the other six votes.
The Player of the Match in the Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup Final came from the opposite end of the experience scale and after a very different match – Grace Banks, the 19-year-old Wigan full-back, for her spectacular contribution to the Warriors’ 42-6 demolition of St Helens.
That decision was made by the BBC commentary team.
And in the last Final of the day, Liam Harris won the Ray French Award as York Knights beat Featherstone Rovers 5-4 in Golden Point extra time to become the sixth different winners in six years of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup.
Harris was presented with the award by Gary French, Ray’s son, after kicking all of York’s points including the match-winning drop goal – following a vote of Our League members. Harris received 33% of the vote.
