Rugby:Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell, David Wallace and Ronan O'Gara were today shortlisted for the ERC European Player Award, which will recognise the greatest player to have graced the Heineken Cup.
To celebrate 15 years of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup, the ERC today announced three awards plus a European Dream Team will be decided before this year’s final on May 22nd.
The four Irish players in the running for the main award join former Leinster flanker Rocky Elsom, Lawrence Dallaglio, Yannick Jauzion, Martin Johnson and Fabien Pelous on the shortlist.
Declan Kidney, a two-time winner of the European Cup with Munster, is among the leading candidates for the coaching award while Geordan Murphy, Peter Clohessy, Peter Stringer, Alan Quinlan, Keith Wood and Anthony Foley are nominated in the Dream Team selection.
Irish fans, meanwhile, will be able to get their hands on tickets for next year’s World Cup in New Zealand from the end of April.
Some 1.65 million tickets will go on sale from April 27th and will be sold in three separate phases, with the first batch of 750,000 tickets being sold for individual teams or venues.
"A range of venue and team pool pack prices and the spread of matches to 13 venues across the country aim to encourage as many fans as possible to get a taste of rugby World Cup excitement," RWC 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden said.
The second phase, when individual match tickets will be released, will begin in either August or September this year.
A third phase for tickets to the semi-finals and the final, all of which will be held at Eden Park, is expected to begin in November. Fans who have bought tickets in the first two phases will go into the ballot for those tickets.
ERC European Player Award
Lawrence Dallaglio, Rocky Elsom, Yannick Jauzion, Martin Johnson, Paul O'Connell, Brian O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara, Fabien Pelous, David Wallace
ERC European Coach Award
Warren Gatland, Declan Kidney, Guy Noves, Ian McGeechan, Dean Richards
ERC European Fair Play Award
Fabien Galthie, Jeremy Guscott, John Hayes, Alessandro Troncon, Martyn Williams
ERC European Dream Team
Full Backs
Josh Lewsey, Geordan Murphy, Clement Poitrenaud, Tim Stimpson, Mark van Gisbergen
Wings
Vincent Clerc, Cedric Heymans, Dafydd James, Josh Lewsey, Emile Ntamack
Centres
Pat Howard, Yannick Jauzion, Christophe Lamaison, Brian O'Driscoll, Fraser Waters
Outside Halves
Diego Dominguez, Austin Healey, David Humphreys, Stephen Jones, Ronan O'Gara
Scrum Halves
Philippe Carbonneau, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Austin Healey, Rob Howley, Peter Stringer
Props
Christian Califano, Pieter de Villers, Peter Clohessy, Darren Garforth, John Hayes, Sylvain Marconnet, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Rodrigo Roncero, Graham Rowntree, Julian White
Hookers
Jerry Flannery, Raphael Ibanez, Mario Ledesma, William Servat, Keith Wood
Second Rows
Ben Kay, Martin Johnson, Paul O'Connell, Fabien Pelous, Simon Shaw
Flankers
Neil Back, Jean Bouilhou, Martin Corry, Rocky Elsom, Greg Kacala, Oliiver Magne, Alan Quinlan, David Wallace, Martyn Williams, Joe Worsley
Number Eights
Lawrence Dallaglio, Anthony Foley, Jamie Heaslip, Christian Labit, Scott Quinnell