Land Rover Discovery of the Season nominees announced
As Official Vehicle of Premiership Rugby, Land Rover hosted a panel this week to discuss the best young talent in English rugby and decide on who was worthy of becoming the 2011/12 Land Rover Discovery of the Season.
This prestigious award, now in its 6th year, celebrates the young talent emerging through the Premiership Rugby Clubs this year. Previous winners have included Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs, Jordan Turner-Hall, Danny Cipriani and Tom Rees. Not only does the deserving player win the title of ‘Discovery of the Year’, they receive a Land Rover Discovery 4 to drive for a year.
With so much talent coming through from this year’s tournament, the panel’s role of creating a shortlist of six and then deciding the eventual winner was especially difficult. The shortlist was announced today and consists of; Luke Wallace (Harlequins), Christian Wade (London Wasps), Joe Launchbury (London Wasps), Owen Farrell (Saracens), Matt Kvesic (Worcester Warriors) and Jonathan Joseph (London Irish).
All six players have had impressive seasons in Aviva Premiership Rugby and their abilities were recognised by the panel comprising of Land Rover ambassador and Rugby World Cup winner, Josh Lewsey, Sam Peters from the Mail on Sunday, Alastair Eykyn from 5 Live, Alex Lowe from the Press Association and Corin Palmer, Premiership Rugby’s Head of Academies and Development. They were joined by Premiership Rugby’s Communications Director Paul Morgan who chaired the panel.
Land Rover ambassador Josh Lewsey told us on the night – “The Academies at the Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs are clearly doing a great job as this current crop of young players are very impressive. The shortlist gives us a huge range of players from gun dogs like Matt Kvesic, nuggety players like Luke Wallace and the obvious mental fortitude of a guy like Owen Farrell. London Irish’s Jonathan Joseph has also impressed me and of course – although it wasn’t all my choice – I was delighted to see two players from London Wasps make the shortlist, after performing as they have, in adversity.”
The winner will be announced at the Aviva Premiership Rugby Awards on Tuesday 8th May. Who do you think deserves to win? Join us on Facebook next week to take part in our poll.
