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Leinster quartet nominated for European Player of the Year

Robbie Henshaw, Tadhg Furlong, Josh van der Flier and Hugo Keenan make the 15-strong list.

EPOTY epcrugby.com epcrugby.com

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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