Four Leinster players, Munster's Conor Murray and Tadhg Beirne of Scarlets are among the 15 nominees for the EPCR European Player of the Year 2018 award.
Scott Fardy, Tadhg Furlong, Isa Nacewa and Jonathan Sexton are rewarded with nominations after helping their side qualify for the last-eight of the Champions Cup with a 100 per cent pool stage record.
La Rochelle’s eye-catching Champions Cup debut has also earned nominations for Levani Botia, Dany Priso and Victor Vito, whilst the Clermont Auvergne pair, Morgan Parra and Alivereti Raka, as well Tadhg Beirne and Gareth Davies of the Scarlets, are included in the list.
Last year’s winner – Owen Farrell of Saracens – and Josua Tuisova from Toulon complete the list.
Public voting for the award is now open here. The longlist will be reduced down to five players in April following the Champions Cup semi-finals through a combination of the public vote and the opinions of a judging panel before voting restarts and a winner is announced on May 12th.
That panel is made up by Brian O’Driscoll, former France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili, Sky Sports’ Stuart Barnes and journalists Chris Jones [BBC Radio 5 Live], Emmanuel Massicard [Midi Olympique] and Matthieu Lartot [France Télévisions].
