Nominees for Land Rover Discovery of Premiership season announced

Six players including England and Bath wing Joe Cokanisiga have been named as nominees for the Land Rover Discovery of the Season by Premiership Rugby.

Players with age under 23 as on 1st September 2018 and have featured in a minimum of eight Premiership games are eligible for the award and Cokanisiga will have to compete with Sale Sharks' Tom Curry, Harlequins' Alex Dombrandt, Northampton Saints' Rory Hutchinson, Exeter Chiefs' Joe Simmonds and Gloucester's Ollie Thorley for the award.

“I would say the majority of players on the list would be in my Premiership Rugby team of the year,” said David Flatman, Land Rover Ambassador.

“That’s quite something when you think that they are just kids, but four or five of this six are probably among the best in their positions in the whole of Gallagher Premiership Rugby.

“It just goes to show the strength in depth of players coming through the ranks for their Premiership Rugby clubs and it’s brilliant in terms of the youth development in the league.

“It’s easy to stick young players in the gym and give them loads of broccoli and chicken, but to develop them and make them into good rugby players is significantly more difficult.

“It demonstrates that in certain environments there is some really good coaching of young players going on which is really important and it makes picking a shortlist really tough.

“Many of the previous winners of this award have gone on to earn international honours and it is a testament to the clubs and the players for the amount of work they put in.”

The winner will be announced on 22nd May during the Premiership Rugby Awards. The nominees were decided by Tom Hamilton (ESPN), Sonja McLaughlan (BBC), Corin Palmer (Premiership Rugby), Will Kelleher (Daily Mail) and Alex Lowe (The Times), while Paul Morgan (Premiership Rugby’s Communications Director) chaired the panel.