The shortlist for the 2016 World Rugby Awards was announced this week, encompassing seven different categories in an unprecedented year for the rugby community.
The seven accolades, which include Men’s and Women’s Sevens player of the year after the first appearance of the sport at the Olympic Games for 92 years, will be dished out in an awards dinner at London’s Hilton Metropole on 13th November.
Having made an irreplaceable mark on the world sporting stage in Rio, Osea Kolinisau and Charlotte Caslick lead the nominations for Sevens Player of the Year after both helping their sides claim historic Gold medals.
Caslick produced a superb performance in the Women’s final to secure the first rugby medal since 1924 while Kolinisau and his team-mates brought home their country’s first ever Olympic medal from the Men’s competition.
The three players nominated for the Breakthrough Player of the Year award have all come through the World Rugby U20 Championship in recent years, with England’s 2014 winning captain Maro Itoje joined by new All Blacks Ardie Savea and Anton Lienert-Brown.
In order to be eligible for this award, won by New Zealand’s Nehe Milner-Skudder in 2015, players must have played less than one year of senior international rugby.
Former players George Gregan and Felipe Contepomi are among the panellists selecting the shortlist.
Fiji Sevens will be up against the all-conquering All Blacks and a resurgent England for Team of the Year, with their respective coaches in the running for Coach of the Year.
Other awards include the Referee of the Year and the Try of the Year (watch the three tries here), all of which will be decided a week on Sunday.
You can watch the rest of the nominations for the World Rugby Awards by clicking here, and view the complete 2016 shortlists below:
World Rugby Awards 2016 shortlists
World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in association with HSBC:
Osea Kolinisau (Fiji)
Seabelo Senatla (South Africa)
Virimi Vakatawa (France)
World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year in association with HSBC:
Charlotte Caslick (Australia)
Emily Scarratt (England)
Portia Woodman (New Zealand)
World Rugby Team of the Year:
England
Fiji Sevens
New Zealand
World Rugby Coach of the Year:
Steve Hansen (New Zealand)
Eddie Jones (England)
Ben Ryan (Fiji Sevens)
World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year:
Maro Itoje (England)
Anton Lienert-Brown (New Zealand)
Ardie Savea (New Zealand)
IRPA Try of the Year:
Jamie Heaslip (Ireland, v Italy)
TJ Perenara (New Zealand, v Argentina)
Kaito Shigeno (Japan, v Scotland)
World Rugby Referee Award:
Jérôme Garcès (France)
Alhambra Nievas (Spain)
Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
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