JOSH VAN DER Flier, Caelan Doris and Garry Ringrose have been included on the final shortlist for EPCR Player of the Year.
The Leinster trio have been nominated alongside La Rochelle’s Grégory Alldritt and Toulouse’s Antoine Dupont for the award after an initial 15-man list of nominees was reduced to five contenders.
Van der Flier, the reigning World Player of the Year, would become the first ever player to win the European award in successive years, while Doris and Ringrose are each seeking to become the fourth Leinster player crowned after Van der Flier (2022), Seán O’Brien (2011) and Rob Kearney (2012).
The final five nominees were determined by a combination of almost 20,000 public voters and the verdict of a panel of expert judges.
The judging panel consists of Springboks legend and two-time European Cup winner Brian Habana, former England captain Sarah Hunter, South African sports broadcaster Elma Smit, two-time European Cup winner Andy Goode, and former Challenge Cup winner Dimitri Yachvili.
Public voting has now reopened at this link and the winner of the award, who will be presented with the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy, will be announced following the Champions Cup final between Leinster and La Rochelle on 20 May.
