Rising stars in the running for URC Award

Blair Murray. www.inpho.ie

Some of the brightest young talents in the game are in the running to be named URC Next-Gen Player of the Season.

The prestigious award is open to players who were aged 23 and under at the beginning of the campaign and who had won no more than five international caps at that point. They also need to have made nine appearances in the league this season.

There are 16 nominees short-listed - six apiece from South Africa and Wales, two from Scotland and one from both Ireland and Italy.

The Play-off chasing Scarlets lead the way with three in backs Blair Murray, Ellis Mee and Macs Page. Murray - the joint second top-try scorer in the United rugby Championship with eight - and Mee both made their international debuts this season, while 20-year-old Page is viewed as one of the rising stars of the Welsh game.

The Vodacom Bulls, DHL Stormers, Emirates Lions and Edinburgh Rugby all have two nominees - with centre Matt Currie and hooker Paddy Harrison flying the flag for Scotland - while five teams have one player each in the mix.

Bulls forward Cameron Hanekom is another to have won his first Test cap this season, coming on as a replacement against Wales at the Principality Stadium in November. The same goes for Ospreys flyhalf Dan Edwards and Leinster Rugby loosehead prop Jack Boyle who both made their debuts during the Six Nations.

Edwards is the third highest point scorer in the league this season, with 112, and the list includes a number of other players who are flying high in the URC stats.

Fleet-footed Zebre Parma wing Simone Gesi has made more clean breaks (22) than any other player, while Lions fullback Quan Horn is fourth in terms of defenders beaten with 51.

Then there’s Cardiff Rugby’s English-born but Welsh-qualified wing Gabriel Hamer-Webb who is in the upper echelons of the try chart, having touched down seven times, including a hat-trick against the Ospreys on Judgement Day.

The winner of the award will be determined by a media vote.

URC Next-Gen Player of the Season nominees

Quan Horn, Emirates Lions

Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Vodacom Bulls

Matt Currie, Edinburgh Rugby

Gabe Hamer-Webb, Cardiff Rugby

Henco van Wyk, Emirates Lions

Ellis Mee, Scarlets

Jack Boyle, Leinster Rugby

Cameron Hanekom, Vodacom Bulls

Suleiman Hartzenberg, DHL Stormers

Andre-Hugo Venter, DHL Stormers

Macs Page, Scarlets

Simone Gesi, Zebre Parma

Aneurin Owen, Dragons RFC

Paddy Harrison, Edinburgh Rugby

Blair Murray, Scarlets

Dan Edwards, Ospreys