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PWR: End of Season Award nominees revealed
By Lucy Lomax
Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) has announced the shortlists for the end-of-season awards, including England Women’s Player of the Season.
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Semi-finalists Bristol Bears are nominated in four different categories and three-time consecutive PWR champions Gloucester-Hartpury nominated in three.
Gloucester-Hartpury’s Emma Sing is named on the shortlist for PWR Player of the Season, Head Coach Sean Lynn for Director of Rugby and Cherry and Whites’ Zoe Aldrcoft and Maud Muir nominated for England Player of the Season.
For the first time, Premiership Rugby, the Rugby Players Association (RPA), Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) have joined forces to celebrate the best of English Rugby in one place, with The Rugby Awards taking place on Tuesday 3rd June at The Brewery in London.
The decision was made by a media panel of: Imogen Ainsworth (RugbyPass), Fiona Tomas (Telegraph), Sara Orchard (BBC), Nick Heath (PWR Pod / Freelance), Claire Thomas (TNT Sports), Harry Latham-Coyle (The Independent), Sam Bytheway (The Women’s Rugby Show) and Sarah Rendall (The Guardian / BBC).
PWR Player of the Season- nominees:
· Sarah Bern (Bristol Bears Women)
· Ellie Kildunne (Harlequins Women)
· Meg Jones (Leicester Tigers Women)
· Hope Rogers (Exeter Chiefs Women)
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· Emma Sing (Gloucester-Hartpury)
PWR Breakthrough Player of the Season nominees:
· Lilli Ives Campion (Loughborough Lightning)
· Millie David (Bristol Bears Women)
· Clàudia Peña (Harlequins Women)
· Niamh Swailes (Sale Sharks Women)
PWR Director of Rugby of the Season nominees:
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· Ross Chisholm (Harlequins Women)
· Sean Lynn (Gloucester-Hartpury)
· Nathan Smith (Loughborough Lightning)
· Dave Ward (Bristol Bears Women)
PWR Top Try Scorer nominees:
· May Campbell (Saracens Women) – 16
· Millie David (Bristol Bears Women) – 16
England Women’s Player of the Season nominees:
· Zoe Aldcroft (Gloucester Hartpury)
· Abby Dow (Trailfinders Women)
· Meg Jones (Leicester Tigers Women)
· Maud Muir (Gloucester Hartpury)
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For me director of the season would be ross chisholm-while they ran out of steam last few games he totally turned quins around and made them a force again. Suspect they will give it to sean lynn as a leaving gift for 3 in a row but you do wonder how much of it is down to him,how much of it is down to having by far the strongest squad in the league. Breakthrough surely has to be millie david or claudia pena-millie may have grabbed the headlines for some excellent tries but arguably pena was consistently excellent both in attack and defence all season and had come from spanish league,so a massive step up to PWR. For me if you include WXV and six nations-has to be zoe aldcroft for most consistent england player over the season. I agree with player of the year in PWR they have sort of gone for ‘big names’ when arguably some others should have been included. I think you have to give it to a gloucester player but for me its the gloucester fowards that are so key-their power,the platform they give the team-maud muir,zoe adlcroft or sarah beckett. but they not been nominated!
Seems to be some mistakes here. How could Alex Austerberry not be on the shortlist for DoR of the Year after guiding Saracens to the final? And no May Campbell on the Player of the Season list despite her stellar season? No Amelia MacDougall on the Breakthrough list? In fact, no Saracens Women shortlisted at all despite being beaten finalists. Feels like there’s an agenda at play there.
May Campbell is nominated for Top Try Scorer, albeit that is really about numbers which nominates them. There are one or two surprises including the omissions that caught my eye, EK deserves all the plaudits she gets with the RR but for Quins she had moments of brilliance rather than a brilliant season. Meg Jones wasn’t available all season although I do get the nomination as she made the difference to a developing Tigers team. Saracens, Harlequins, GHP, Exeter and Bristol should be competing for the playoffs with the squads they have, Nathan Smith won’t win the DoR award but there is much to like about what he did over the season with Loughborough and what he gets from his players. I don’t think there is an agenda, I would argue that PWR judges should try and look beyond the usual suspects and regular internationals as they weren’t the only players to make an impact this season.