Sports Personality Of The Year 2013: Ranking The Big Contenders

6. Leigh Halfpenny

Without a doubt the stand out player from this summer's Lions tour of Australia, Leigh Halfpenny thoroughly deserves his place on this year's shortlist, with what has been a superb year for the Welsh full-back. The British and Irish Lions and The Welsh national team stormed to victory in 2013 and Halfpenny picked up both the player of the tour award and player of the tournament award respectively. He is also unsurprisingly on the shortlist for the IRB player of the year, so his inclusion on the Sports Personality of the Year list has come as no surprise in what has been a whopping year for him. The 24 year old is probably not quite at the peak of his career yet and some would argue that because he isn't English, he doesn't get as much praise as he deserves. But it is clear that Halfpenny is the best British Rugby Union player we have seen this decade and I would not be surprised to see him get better. Halfpenny is one of those sportsmen, like many others, that will always be overlooked for the award by individual effort, hence his place in the list.