Nick Cain column: This jealous snub only undermines the awards

There is something badly amiss in the shortlist for the 2016 Players' Player of the Year award. The absence of a single Saracens player among the nominees for the award, which is run by the Rugby Players' Association (RPA), smacks of a campaign to snub the English champions.
This looks even starker given that Saracens players were at the heart of England's 2016 Grand Slam campaign, and that the club are in with a chance of achieving a rare domestic and European double, achieved before only by Leicester and Wasps.
There are bound to be reasons for Saracens unpopularity among their fellow Premiership professionals.
These range from outright jealousy at their achievements, to a dislike of an ambition and competitiveness which is sometimes in your face.
It's been documented, for instance, that their habit of singing the Sarries team song at full blast in their changing room after a victory on someone else's turf has got under the skin of other clubs, with Northampton a case in point.
There are no doubt other transgressions, real or imagined, which have irked their fellow pros.
However, what the Players' Player Award panel should address urgently is what their accolade is about. Is it a popularity contest, or is it about recognising fellow professionals who attain – and sustain – the highest standards on the pitch, and conduct themselves well elsewhere.
Ideally, as well as being a brilliant, inspirational rugby player any winner of the award will also be a pristine enough role model to appeal to schoolchildren. That said, most elite players would probably cut their fellow pros a bit of slack given that the squads they inhabit contain at least some of the human imperfections and foibles to be found in most communities.
The absence of players of the calibre of Billy Vunipola, George Kruis, Maro Itoje and Alex Goode from the shortlist is glaring, and to most outsiders it is also hard to understand. Their consistent excellence on the pitch this season is indisputable, and in interviews they all come across well.
No.8 Vunipola has been unstoppable for both Saracens and England after making serious gains on the fitness front, while Kruis has established himself as one of the best all-round locks in the game.
His second-row partner, Itoje, whose extraordinary breakthrough has at least seen him nominated in the RPA's Young Player of the Year category, has already established his leadership credentials at senior level after captaining England U20s to victory in the 2014 World Junior Championships.
While no-one can take issue with the presence of the three Wasps – George Smith, Charles Piutau and Nathan Hughes – in the main award shortlist, or dispute the merits of Exeter No.8 Thomas Waldrom, and his prolific try-count, the inclusion of Newcastle's Andy Goode is a surprise.
There's no disputing the sterling stand-in job the veteran fly-half did for Newcastle this season after coming out of retirement, but seven matches is too limited a period to make him a contender for an award of this magnitude.
Soon after the shortlist was announced Saracens rugby director Mark McCall was asked whether the absence of any of his players was a surprise.
His response indicated that it was not something he was going to take too seriously.
“From my point of view, yes, but there hasn't been too much talk about it. I think our group are much more interested in achieving something collectively than any individual award.
“It's not the most important thing to us, and I don't want to comment on whether they should or shouldn't have (shortlisted Saracens players). We're trying to achieve something as a group.”
In the final analysis, whatever it was that influenced the voting among Premiership players to exclude any Saracens from the shortlist, they should be careful what they wish for. If they want their Players' Player award to have the unique status it deserves, then they have to invest it with that status.
Snubbing some of the most exceptional players in their ranks because they happen to come from a particular club suggests that some Premiership players are either playing petty politics, or they are indifferent to their own awards.
Either way, if the professional players do not value their Players' Player award highly enough, then it will not take long before nobody else does.