Time for the round up of who saw it coming and who got hit right in the eye.
Premiership Winner: No great prizes for this one. They might not be the favourite of everyone here, but they were favourites with the bookies, so I give just a polite golf-clap to Peej, Shiny, Raggs, Scrumhead, Mellsblue, Gloskarlos, Stom, Margin_Walker for picking the boring, if right, answer.
More hearty applause for being wrong, but very brave with it, go to Switchskier, Epaminondas Pules, and fivepointer for picking 9th place Bristol, and a special award to FKAS for picking second-bottom Gloucester, which in fairness did look like a much less risible pick just two months ago.
Table order: Raggs has form for being good at this competition and I hope they're still lurking despite the sad loss of Wasps. They managed to pick the correct top 4 (not the right order but one of only two to believe in Sale, well done Mells as the other), Falcons as the bottom (surviving team), Glaws near the bottom, and Exeter mired 7th in mid-table. Nobody did anything too comedic here - mostly just expressions of belief in an Exeter recovery that never occurred (Timbo picking them as top of the table!) - although saddest is to see all the tables with 13 teams in them.
European predictions - how will the English teams do? The correct answer was 5 teams to the second round, 3 teams to the quarters, and one team to the semis, which was about par based on the predictions (some were more pessimistic, but one idiot predicted Leicester would win the whole thing, so I guess it evens out!).
Top try scorer: Top try scorer was Murley with 15, who was picked by scrumhead, 5p, and Margin. Excellent work.
On the other end of the scale, Raggs picked Nic Dolly, who I don't think actually got to play a Premiership game this season, but the real loser here is myself for, not only picking 1-try Courtnall Skosan, but for leading FKAS astray with me.
Top points scorer: Everyone's favourite "The Mod is specifically deleting this comment about him being not proven of sexual assault, so please don't pay it any mind" Paddy Jackson came in clear as the top-scorer, getting a pat on the head for Shiny, Scrumhead, Tigersman, EP, and Margin. Don't know I'd go for a drink with him, but hell of a kicker.
Surprise of the season: Mine and Stom's picks of Manu being uninjured for most of it was something of a monkey's paw - wish granted, he'll be uninjured, but he'll also be mostly crap.
Raggs gets an honourable mention for predicting Newcastle would cause problems for the top 4 despite having a bad season - 2 of their 6 victories were against Leicester and Sale and they came close to turning over Sarries and Saints as well.
Timbo's pick of Leinster failing to win a trophy again was pretty prescient as well.
Sad failures from the people predicting the survival of one or both of Wasps and Wuss.
Biggest disappointment: EP, Puja, Gloskarlos - Worcester not surviving.
We weren't pessimistic enough - no-one picked any other sides being in trouble.
Tigersman said "Reckon 2 head coaches will get sacked end of season," but I don't think anyone was particularly disappointed by the one big name who did go.
Player having a breakthrough season: Once again, I picked Phil Cokanasiga. Once again, I was utterly thwarted. Seemed to start well, but even when Leicester were down to their last few fit backs, he was still getting gametime at Nottingham. I think I'm a curse to that man.
Epaminondas Pules gets undoubtedly the right answer with Seb Atkinson, although probably wasn't expecting that to be with Glaws when they made that call
Best signing: Lawrence wasn't an option back when we started doing this. Most people suggested Genge, Gopperth, Tizard, or McGinty - all had good moments, but none really set the league alight. I'm going to say we all failed, as a team.
Best unheralded signing: Tie between Margin Walker picking Fisichetti and Gloskarlos predicting FSmith to Saints. Raggs lost their usual accuracy by picking Jason Woodward to Sale - did he even get a game before being released at the end of the season?
The [Redacted] Award for lowest performance to hype ratio from a new signing: Sadly, no big signing really flopped this year. People mentioned Pollard and Watson, but both were decent for Leicester, and it feels a bit cruel to give the award to people who said that Koch won't solve all of Wasps' problems.
The Jerome Schuster Award for most valueless signing: Scrumhead is the clear champion here, leaning into the board trope that Argentine prop signings disappoint, and picking Eduardo Bello who managed 4 games off the bench and has just been released by Saracens.
Overall, a complete mixed bag - most people's predictions assumed there'd be at least 12 teams by the end of the season, which obviously skewed a lot of stuff. I'd say the winner this year is Raggs, who hopefully still lurks on the board despite the pain of losing Wasps, for picking the closest league table.
The loser this year is, of course, still me. Hopefully see you all again to try this again in a few months' time!
Puja
