Rising Star Nominees

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 Vodacom URC 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.

Vodacom 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 fly-half 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 Vodacom URC stats.

Fleet-footed Zebre Parma wing Simone Gesi has made more clean breaks (22) than any other player, while Lions full-back 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.

Here’s a full list of the 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