Nominations for European player of the year announced

The European Professional Club Rugby has announced 15 players across seven different clubs in the nominations for the European Player of the Year award.

The elite list comprises of seven players from three Irish regional side with Tadhg Beirne, Joey Carbery and club captain Peter O’Mahony from Munster while Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong and Garry Ringrose are from the Champions Cup defending champions Leinster side.

Ireland international Jacob Stockdale make a solitary representation from Ulster while Premiership champions Saracens have two nominees in Alex Goode and Mako Vunipola.

Winner of the last season's award Leone Nakarawa finds his name in the nomination once again along with his Racing 92 team-mates Finn Russell and Simon Zebo and will be accompanied by Antoine Dupont and Cheslin Kolbe from Toulouse.

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Edinburgh's Viliame Mata completes the list after his terrific performance in the group stage.

Players making notable contributions during the play-offs will also be included in due course but the list will be trimmed to five players by April following a combination of public voting and verdict of the judges.

The judging panel includes Bryan Habana (Channel 4), Chris Jones (BBC Radio 5 Live), Matthieu Lartot (France Télévisions), Emmanuel Massicard (Midi Olympique), Brian O’Driscoll (BT Sport), Dimitri Yachvili (beIN Sports).

EPCR European Player of the Year award 2019 nominees

Tadhg Beirne (Munster Rugby)
Joey Carbery (Munster Rugby)
Sean Cronin (Leinster Rugby)
Antoine Dupont (Toulouse)
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster Rugby)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Cheslin Kolbe (Toulouse)
Viliame Mata (Edinburgh Rugby)
Leone Nakarawa (Racing 92)
Peter O’Mahony (Munster Rugby)
Garry Ringrose (Leinster Rugby)
Finn Russell (Racing 92)
Jacob Stockdale (Ulster Rugby)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
Simon Zebo (Racing 92)