Our winner as voted for by thousands of Rugby Union Fans is Shaun Gunn of Edinburgh Accies. His prize of Champagne and stash were despatched to the club today and we hope to get full reaction later this week. An incredible achievement by Shaun, the fans winner of the #FirstFiftyDays Player award
Across the nation, rugby is played at schools, universities and rugby clubs. The game can be 100% amateur, 100% professional, 100% semi-professional or a mixture. The game is played by both men and women.
In many parts of the world rugby union is considered to be the fastest growing team sport. Quite frankly, the game is in rude health. Every week players get nominated as Man of the Match, Player of the Week or Outstanding performance.
Here at TalkingRugbyUnion, we follow all those nominations on social media. For many the season started on 3rd September and to celebrate we announced our Player Award for the #FirstFiftyDays of the season. Over 30 players made the short list that we then published on www.facebook.com/rugbyunionfans
Thousands of rugby union fans vote and when the poll closed on 31st October, there were three stand out candidates. So let’s remind ourselves who those nominees were:
| Name | Club |
| Ben Turner | Bury St. Edmunds |
| Kiba Richards | Worthing RFC |
| Maku Koroiyadi | Bury St Wdmunds |
| Ollie Neissen | Worthing RFC |
| Tom Ailes | Sale FC |
| Tom Rock | Bury St. Edmunds |
| Harry Ledger | Old Elthaniams |
| Nathan Hannay | Chinnor |
| Rob Watkins | Bedford Athletic |
| Richard Hardwick | Perth Spirit |
| Greg Smith | Fylde FC |
| Tom Daughty | Bath Uni |
| Jack Moates | Loughborough Uni |
| Steve Leonard | Hartpury College |
| Rob Stevenson | Durham Uni |
| Jack Barnard | Leeds Beckett |
| Harry Cochrane | Hartpury College |
| Jamie Christie | Northumbria Uni |
| Matt Garvey | Bath Rugby |
| Sam Stark | Cardiff Uni |
| Marcus Smith | Brighton College |
| Tom Loftus | Liverpool Collegiate |
| Tracy Balmer | Worcester Ladies |
| Lloyd Evans | Rotherham Titans |
| Graham Hunter | Ayr RFC |
| Shaun Gunn | Edinburgh Accies |
| Wade Schoeman | Cambridge RFC |
| Sean O'Hagan | Richmond Rugby |
| George Owen | London Irish Amateurs |
Given the coverage TalkingRugbyUnion affords #UniRugby with partners www.bucs.org and #NationalLeagues with www.ncarugby.org it wasn’t surprising many from these competitions were on the short list. There are big shout outs to: Rob Stevenson at Durham University and Tracy Balmer at Worcester Ladies. Our correspondent, Chris Heal told us all how impressed he was with Sale FC’s, Tom Ailes.