Guinness Premiership : Guinness Premiership Award nominees announced

Award nominee James Simpson Daniel

Guinness Premiership Award nominees announced

12 May 2008, 3:59 pm

By Jonathan McConnell

Following a thrilling final round of matches on Saturday, the nominees for the Guinness Premiership Awards have been announced.

Gloucester Rugby, who finished top of the Guinness Premiership, have two players nominated for the Guinness Premiership Player of the Season; winger James Simpson-Daniel and Fijian flanker Akapusi Qera.

Simpson-Daniel was the third top try scorer in the league this season with nine tries and has been a constant threat in his 17 league matches, as well as scoring tries in his side's Heineken Cup campaign.

Qera is playing his first season in the Guinness Premiership having joined Gloucester from Birmingham-Solihull. Qera returned from a highly successful Rugby World Cup with Fiji to play a key role for the league leaders.

Second placed London Wasps also saw two players nominated, fly-half Danny Cipriani and winger Paul Sackey.

Cipriani won his first England cap this season and enjoyed an influential first start for his country by leading them to victory over Ireland in the final match of the Six Nations. For his club, Cipriani has been at the heart of a successful unbeaten run that has resulted in a home semi-final for Wasps this weekend.

Sackey has continued his form of last season, being one of England's best players in the Rugby World Cup and performing at a consistently high level for Wasps with his pace and strength.

Also nominated is Bath Rugby's England centre Olly Barkley.

Barkley has been instrumental in Bath Rugby's revival under Steve Meehan, playing most often at inside centre, but taking the fly-half role with good effect when injury ruled out Butch James.

The Land Rover Discovery of the Season highlights the best young players in the league, with a large number of players eligible for this award.

Danny Cipriani was also nominated for this award, giving the Wasps and England star a 'double-double' of nominations in both player and young player categories in the PRA and Guinness Premiership Awards.

Joining Cipriani were two Harlequins players in Danny Care and Chris Robshaw. Both have been central to Harlequins' strong league form, which sees them hoping to gain a Heineken Cup place for a second consecutive season, having missed out on a Guinness Premiership semi-final place in the dying minutes on Saturday.

Completing the nominations are Bath Rugby's Matt Banahan and Sale Sharks' Ben Foden.

Banahan finished his first season of Guinness Premiership rugby as the league's second highest try scorer and helped his Bath Rugby team to third place in the league.

Foden has scored eight tries for Sale Sharks from the full-back berth, but will leave fifth place Sale for the returning Northampton Saints at the end of the season.

The nominations for the O2 Director of Rugby of the Season are Steve Meehan, Dean Richards and Dean Ryan.

Ryan has again led his side to the top of the table, leading for all but one of the 22 rounds. Ryan has continued to mould and develop a team of talented young English players that qualified for a Heineken Cup quarter-final and will aim to compete in their second consecutive Guinness Premiership Final at the end of May.

Steve Meehan has transformed Bath from a lower mid-table team into genuine title contenders and prospective winners of the European Challenge Cup. Bath are arguably playing the most dynamic rugby in the country and have edged themselves back in to familiar territory at the summit of the English game.

For his part, Quins' Director of Rugby Dean Richards has cemented Harlequins' place in the league and narrowly missed out on a semi-final place in the Guinness Premiership. As with the other Dean, Richards has built the foundations of his team on a group of dynamic young Englishmen which bodes well for club and country.

Also announced were the nominations for the MBNA Try of the Season.

The nominations in full are:

Guinness Premiership Player of the Season

Olly Barkley, Bath Rugby
Danny Cipriani, London Wasps
Akapusi Qera, Gloucester Rugby
Paul Sackey, London Wasps
James Simpson-Daniel, Gloucester Rugby

Land Rover Discovery of the Season

Matthew Banahan, Bath Rugby
Danny Care, Harlequins
Danny Cipriani, London Wasps
Ben Foden, Sale Sharks
Chris Robshaw, Harlequins

O2 Director of Rugby of the Season

Steve Meehan, Bath Rugby
Dean Richards, Harlequins
Dean Ryan, Gloucester Rugby

MBNA Try of the Season

Tom Guest, Leeds Carnegie v Harlequins, Sunday 13th April 2008
Kai Horstmann, Sale Sharks v Worcester Warriors, Friday 29th February 2008
Johne Murphy, Leicester Tigers v Bath Rugby, Saturday 22nd September 2007
James Simpson-Daniel, Gloucester Rugby v Bath Rugby, Saturday 10th May 2008
Fraser Waters, London Wasps v Leeds Carnegie, Sunday 30th September 2007

EDF Energy Community Player of the Season

Duncan Bell, Bath Rugby
Andy Kyriacou, Saracens
Joe Shaw, Newcastle Falcons
Sam Tuitupou, Worcester Warriors
Dave Walder, London Wasps

Also presented on the evening will be:

The Times Team Performance of the Season
Coral Top Try Scorer Award
Gilbert Golden Boot
Sky Sports Dream Team

The Guinness Premiership Awards take place on Wednesday 28th May 2008 at The Great Hall, Stamford Bridge and will be shown the following evening on a special edition of The Rugby Club on Sky Sports.