French players dominate a six-strong shortlist for this season's Six Nations player of the championship.
Centre Mathieu Bastareaud, scrum-half Morgan Parra, skipper Thierry Dusautoir and number eight Imanol Harinordoquy all feature, together with two British & Irish Lions wings - Ireland's Tommy Bowe and Welshman Shane Williams.
France will win the title and Grand Slam if they beat England in Paris on Saturday night, while Ireland can land a fifth Triple Crown in seven seasons by defeating Scotland at Croke Park.
A panel of former international players, including Jason Leonard, Keith Wood and Jonathan Davies, submitted nominations for an award won by Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll in three of the past four seasons.
The winner will be decided in a public vote hosted on the official Six Nations website.
Comments
Saint_Andre91 says...
Regarding the French nominees, I would have chosen Jauzion as well and maybe Nallet over Bastareaud and Parra. Bastareaud really impressed again Scotland and had a good game vs Ireland and did little against Wales and Italy. Nallet has been the engine in the French pack since the beginning of this 6N campaign.
For the other nations, I thought that Brown for the Scots, Borthwick or Easter for England, Canavosio for Italy all deserved a mention.
Posted 10:42 18th March 2010
mlbp says...
Maybe Yannick Jauzion deserves making the shortlist, and Jamie Heaslip or Thomas Domingo instead of Shane Williams (a couple of brilliant tries, one of them when the French were already napping, thinking that the referee had blown for a knock on, but more than a dismal performance in the other matches). That would be too many French players, but they were the only ones worth making the cut...
Posted 22:24 17th March 2010