The shortlist for the Gallagher Premiership Land Rover Discovery of the Season award has been made, with six exciting young players named.
The award is for players aged under 23 on the 1st September 2020 and they have to have featured in 6 or more Gallagher Premiership games this season. Previous winners have included Sam Simmonds, Ellis Genge, Maro Itoje, Henry Slade, Billy Vunipola, Joe Launchbury, Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs, Jordan Turner-Hall, Danny Cipriani, Tom Rees, Tom Varndell and Ollie Smith.
This year’s shortlist is a cracker, featuring six names that everyone has been talking about all year: Wasps Alfie Barbeary, the former Bloxham School skipper, London Irish’s Ollie Hassell-Collins, once of St Paul’s Catholic College and named in today’s England squad, Harlequins Will Evans, a former Wyggestion & Queen Elizabeth I College product, Bristol Bears’ Ioan Lloyd, who has named in yesterday’s Wales squad and has been a star since his Clifton College days, Sale Sharks Bevan Rodd, the former Sedbergh star who looks likely to link up with England later this summer, and Leicester Tigers’ Freddie Steward, once of Norwich School and who, like Hassell-Collins, has been named in Eddie Jones England squad.
The shortlist and winner was voted for by a panel of media professionals. The judges were: Ben Coles (Daily Telegraph); Duncan Bech (Press Association); Will Kelleher (Daily Mail), Nick Heath (Freelance), Gerard Meagher (The Guardian) and Kate Rowan (Daily Telegraph). The panel was chaired by Paul Morgan, Premiership Rugby’s Communications Director.
The winner will be announced at the 2021 Premiership Rugby Awards, presented by Gallagher, which start on Monday 14 June, running through to Friday 18 June when the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Player of the Season will be announced.
Land Rover Discovery of the Season Shortlist:
Alfie Barbeary (Wasps)
Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish)
Will Evans (Harlequins)
Ioan Lloyd (Bristol Bears)
Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers)
