- Camille Lopez (Clermont, 25/1)
- Louis Carbonel (Toulon, 20/1)
In a never to be forgotten season, Exeter Chiefs captain Joe Simmonds lifted the Heineken Champions Cup and claimed the Golden Boot award as the leading points scorer in the 2019/20 competition.
It was the first time in five years that anyone other than Saracens’ Owen Farrell had taken the prize, Simmonds notching 95 points as the Chiefs took home their first piece of European silverware.
Taking the last 10 seasons of European Cup rugby into account, the Golden Boot winner has gone to a player from a Champions Cup-winning team – Chiefs, Saracens three times, Leinster twice and Toulon the once, when Jonny Wilkinson had a memorable swansong season.
It goes without saying but punters looking to have a bet on the top point scorer market need to choose a player from a team likely to be challenging for the trophy right to the bitter end.
Cam’s your man
Simmonds is 3/1 to repeat the feat achieved in the last decade by Farrell and Johnny Sexton and win back-to-back Golden Boots, and understandably so given the Chiefs’ flying start to the new Gallagher Premiership season.
With Saracens relegated to the Championship, there is no competition from Farrell this year and Sexton is second favourite at 4/1. We’d question the wisdom of backing the Leinster man achieving a hat-trick of Golden Boots though, given his injury record of late.
The player that catches our eye is Clermont’s Camille Lopez, available at a juicy 25/1. Lopez has over 100 points for the season already in the Top 14, putting him second in the points-scoring charts.
He played nearly 500 minutes in the Champions Cup last season and is likely to start most games if not all at fly-half.
The 31-year-old only mustered 15 points in last season’s campaign but was not Clermont’s principal kicker then as he is now.
Last season Clermont were spoilt for choice with Morgan Parra, the Golden Boot winner in 2012/13, Jake McIntyre and Greig Laidlaw the options available to them. McIntyre has returned home to Australia and Laidlaw is now one of the poster boys of Japanese club rugby.
Ultra-consistent
Clermont may always fall short of landing the big prize but they are ultra-consistent in getting to the latter stages. We expect them to do just about enough to make the last eight, even though they face a big challenge with home-and-away games against Bristol and Munster.
The only caveat when it comes to backing Lopez is that Parra is now back in the starting line-up after being out with coronavirus and the two of them may end up sharing the kicking duties.
Sticking with the French, we fancy Toulon to go well. Their young fly-half, Louis Carbonel, priced at 20/1, showed that nothing fazes him in the final of the Autumn Nations Cup and he was a prolific kicker in his U20 days.
He is also likely to have control of the tee throughout unless he hits an unexpected downturn in fortunes.
