Nacewa, Heaslip and O'Brien up for top award

RUGBY:THREE LEINSTER players have been nominated as part of the five-man shortlist from which the inaugural ERC: European Player of The Year Award will be chosen.

In a tribute to their progress to next Saturday’s Heineken Cup final, Jamie Heaslip, Isa Nacewa and Seán O’Brien have been shortlisted along with Sergio Parisse of Stade Français Paris and the Northampton Saints’ loosehead Soane Tonga’uiha.

Nacewa has played in every one of Leinster’s eight games on the road to a second Heineken Cup final, scoring three tries, including a brilliant, match-winning try in the quarter-final against Leicester. Indeed, he has played 22 Heineken Cup games in a row for Leinster, helping them win the title in 2009, reach the semi-finals last year and now a second final.

Heaslip returned to his very best with a man-of-the-match performance in the epic semi-final against Toulouse, recalling memories of his excellent form in the pool stages, most notably in the back to back games against Clermont despite suffering an ankle injury early in the first meeting.

O’Brien has played in every game, starting across the backrow, scored four tries and won three man-of-the-match awards.

The 23-stone Tonga’uiha has been a one-man wrecking machine in the frontrow for the Saints and picked up two man-of-the-match awards in the pool stages, before giving Ulster, and then Nicholas Mas and the rest of the much-vaunted Perpignan scrum a torrid time in the knock-out stages.

Parisse has played a massive role in all the key games for Stade in their march to a third European final – Michael Cheika’s team play Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins in the Amlin Challenge Cup final on Friday night.

ERC have appointed an independent panel of five judges – Stuart Barnes (Sky Sports), Jean Roger Delsaud (Midi Olympique), Raphael Ibanez (France Television), Stephen Jones (The Sunday Times) and Gerry Thornley (The Irish Times) – who submitted their respective top-five nominations and ERC then cross referenced and validated these to determine the final shortlist.

All 44 participating clubs (24 in the Heineken Cup and 20 in the Amlin Challenge Cup) will send in one vote and ERC will take these responses to the panel and the winner will be decided in Cardiff after both European finals.

Last season, ERC celebrated 15 years of the Heineken Cup by hosting a gala ball for their best XV of the tournament’s history in Paris on the eve of last year’s final, and the inaugural recipient of ERC’s European Player Award (the best player over the first 15 years of their two tournaments) was Munster’s Ronan O’Gara.