Land Rover Discovery of the Season shortlist : News

Premiership Rugby today confirmed that six of the brightest young stars in world rugby have been shortlisted for the Land Rover Discovery of the Season. The list includes Freddie Burns and Jonny May.

Two players from London Wasps, two from Gloucester Rugby and one each from both Harlequins and Saracens have emerged in the race to find the best Under-23 player in Aviva Premiership Rugby.

The 2012-13 season has been a stellar campaign for young players in Aviva Premiership Rugby as the countdown to Rugby World Cup 2015 began in earnest.

The full shortlist is:

Freddie Burns - Gloucester Rugby

Joe Launchbury - London Wasps

Jonny May - Gloucester Rugby

Mako Vunipola - Saracens

Christian Wade - London Wasps

Luke Wallace - Harlequins

The winner will be announced at the Aviva Premiership Rugby Awards at the London Hilton, Park Lane on 9 May at a ceremony that is sold out.

The winner will receive a trophy and an invitation to become a Land Rover ambassador for the 2013/14 season, including the provision of a Land Rover Discovery 4.

"Picking through the young talent on show in Aviva Premiership Rugby was a massive task," said Mike Hynard Premiership Rugby's Head of Academies and Development.

"Every club had players who could have made this shortlist and emergence of such an impressive crop of young players is testament to a number of things including the operation of the club Academies.

"The standard of the club academy programmes improve throughout the country every year and with it so does the quality of the academy players being produced. We currently - in Chris Robshaw - have the first England captain to graduate from an Aviva Premiership Rugby Academy."

The shortlist was compiled by a panel of media professionals:

Josh Lewsey (Land Rover ambassador), Alastair Eykyn (BBC 5 Live), Alex Lowe (Press Association), Chris Foy (Dail Mail), Gavin Mairs (Daily Telegraph), Graham Jenkins (ESPNScrum) and Alan Pearey (Rugby World).

They were joined Mike Hynard (Premiership Rugby's Head of Academies and Development) and Paul Morgan (Premiership Rugby's Communications Director) who chaired the panel.

On 9 May the winners of the following Awards will be announced:

· Aviva Premiership Rugby Player of the Season

· Aviva Community Player of the Season

· Land Rover Discovery of the Season

· QBE Director of Rugby of the Season

· Guinness Try of the Season

· Gilbert Golden Boot

· J.P. Morgan Premiership Rugby Sevens Player of the Season

· Top Try Scorer of the Season

· Dream Team

· Gatorade Game Changer of the Season

The winners will be announced on Thursday 9 May at the sold out Aviva Premiership Rugby Awards at The Hilton, Park Lane.

The event will be covered live on Twitter via the @premrugby account.

Stephen Thomas, a regular at Gloucester Rugby's Walking Rugby sessions is in line for a top prize after being nominated for Premiership Rugby's BREAKTHRU Achiever of the Year award. He admitted to GRTV to being shocked and humbled by the news.

After a long build-up, Gloucester's Ross Moriarty made his first appearance in a British & Irish Lions shirt on Saturday. Speaking after the game, he admitted that it was good to finally get into action.