Six SA rising stars in the running for URC Award

NEWS: Six South African young guns head up the nominations for the 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.

Quan Horn, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Henco van Wyk, Cameron Hanekom, Andre-Hugo Venter and Suleiman Hartzenburg are all in contention after their stellar performances this season.

The play-off chasing Scarlets lead the way with three in the backs, Blair Murray, Ellis Mee, and Macs Page. Murray – the joint second top-try scorer in the 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 Bulls, Stormers, Lions and Edinburgh 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.

Bulls forward Cameron Hanekom is another to have won his first Test cap this season, coming on as a replacement against Wales at the Millenium Stadium in November.

The same goes for Ospreys flyhalf Dan Edwards and Leinster 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 several other players who are flying high in the URC stats.

Fleet-footed Zebre Parma wing Simone Gesi has made more clean breaks (22) than any other player, while Lions fullback Quan Horn is fourth in terms of defenders beaten with 51.

Then there’s Cardiff’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.

Here’s a full list of the nominees:

Quan Horn, Lions
Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Bulls
Matt Currie, Edinburgh
Gabe Hamer-Webb, Cardiff
Henco van Wyk, Lions
Ellis Mee, Scarlets
Jack Boyle, Leinster
Cameron Hanekom, Bulls
Suleiman Hartzenberg, Stormers
Andre-Hugo Venter, Stormers
Macs Page, Scarlets
Simone Gesi, Zebre Parma
Aneurin Owen, Dragons
Paddy Harrison, Edinburgh
Blair Murray, Scarlets
Dan Edwards, Ospreys