Rugby stars snubbed from BBC Sports Personality of the Year award despite British and Irish Lions tour

Despite successes of England, Saracens, the Lions and England's rugby league side

Former British and Irish Lions head coach Sir Ian McGeechan has hit out at the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award after controversially no rugby players were included.

The nominees were announced on Monday with Anthony Joshua favourite to take home the award after beating Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 people in Wembley ahead of Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and Tour de France winner Chris Froome.

There was no place for rugby union player of the year nominees Maro Itoje and Owen Farrell, however, despite helping England rugby to back-to-back Six Nations wins and Saracens to consecutive European Cups.

They were also key in helping the Lions to a 1-1 draw with New Zealand in the summer, with tour captain Sam Warburton also overlooked, along with player-of-the-series Jonathan Davies.

There is even more reason for the world of rugby to feel aggrieved given that Wales’ Leigh Halfpenny finished runner-up in 2013 after helping the Welsh to a second consecutive Six Nations title and being the stand-out player on the Lions’ successful tour of Australia that summer.

Barry John and Willie John McBride are two others who were named in the top three of the award after a successful Lions tour in 1971 and 1974 and the decision to omit any one from either code – with the England rugby league set to play in the World Cup final on Saturday – has been questioned by McGeehan.

“It is disappointing, particularly this year, where it’s been an outstanding Six Nations followed by a Lions tour where you go away to the world champions and play an incredible Test series,” McGeehan told the Telegraph.

“We’ve a number of players at the moment who are outstanding in European competition and in world competition. So you would have hoped that there would have been some reflection of that.”