THE NOMINEES FOR this year’s EPCR European Player of the Year award have been announced today.
Four Irish players who all play for Leinster — Tadhg Furlong, Robbie Henshaw, Hugo Keenan and Josh van der Flier — have made the 15-strong long list.
Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle have reached the Champions Cup semi-final for the first time, where they will meet Leinster, and the Top 14 side have five representatives — Grégory Alldritt, Levani Botia, Kevin Gourdon, Raymond Rhule and Will Skelton.
Antoine Dupont, Jerome Kaino, Julien Marchand and Romain Ntamack feature for fellow semi-finalists Toulouse, while Matthieu Jalibert is the sole Bordeaux-Begles player included.
Voting for the award is now open and the list will be reduced to five names in early May, by a combination of public vote and the judging panel.
The panel is made up of Erik Bonneval (beIN SPORTS), Bryan Habana (Channel 4), Sonja McLaughlan (BBC Radio 5 Live), Alan Quinlan (Virgin Media) and Dimitri Yachvili (France Télévisions).
Voting will then reopen and an overall winner will be announced following the Champions Cup final on Saturday, 22 May.
EPCR European Player of the Year 2021 award nominees:
- Grégory ALLDRITT (La Rochelle)
- Levani BOTIA (La Rochelle)
- Antoine DUPONT (Toulouse)
- Tadhg FURLONG (Leinster)
- Kevin GOURDON (La Rochelle)
- Robbie HENSHAW (Leinster)
- Matthieu JALIBERT (Bordeaux-Bègles)
- Jerome KAINO (Toulouse)
- Hugo KEENAN (Leinster)
- Julien MARCHAND (Toulouse)
- Kotaro MATSUSHIMA (ASM Clermont Auvergne)
- Romain NTAMACK (Toulouse)
- Raymond RHULE (La Rochelle)
- Will SKELTON (La Rochelle)
- Josh VAN DER FLIER (Leinster)
Originally published at 10.49
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them Brits are always late
ha ha.
excellent Cornelius. true that.
if he wins it on the last shot though he’ll be as Irish as myself.
Unlike us punctual Irish!!!!
According to Skysports he’s now Irish again :)
Of course he’s Irish, Jason, Europe is losing!!!!
He was watching the All-Ireland Hurling Final!!!!
Surely in the scenario described he would have been an hour early with Chicago being an hour behind the eastern coast. Unless the earth spins in the opposite direction stateside….
If its 10am in Chicago it’s 11am on the east coast….
Mr crow u beat me to it! silly brits with their tardiness ;)
Cornellius and maverick. You are ignorant gits.
Are all Rorys slow today? Twas a joke. Declan summed it up by what i meant.
sense of humor by pass for Rory Conway !!
@Alan you must be from Leitrim I’m guessing and you support Liverpool and you have a dislike for snobby c@@nts who play golf… All combining to show why you hate 3 champions ie Kilkenny, Man United and McIlroy
lol, probably. would rather go and watch shels than man utd and spend friday night under lights on the driving range with a bunch of other people who kit themselves out from car boot sales and who couldnt hit a wall with a tractor
Man United.. Champions? I think you must have time warped in from 1999??
You don’t know Leitrim people, we laugh at your silly comments!!!!
for some unknown reason some sports people really annoy me. i cant figure out why. mcilory seems a real tosser. i couldnt care less what he does or doesnt achieve. same with alex feguson, wayne rooney, brian cody and others
If Europe wins he’s British , if they lose he’s Irish . Wait till you see.
“eastern seaboard time”? Lads, it’s called Eastern Standard Time in winter and Eastern Daylight Time in the summer…..
Ten minutes is the the time most golfers turn up for their tee time, no big deal.