Milner-Skudder up for World Rugby award

Players must have played less than one year of senior worldwide rugby.

All Blacks winger Nehe Milner-Skudder says it is a privilege to be in contention to win a World Rugby award in his rookie worldwide season.

“But I’ve loved every second of it and I was absolutely over the moon when I realised I was up for the award”.

The 24-year-old is the only payer of the trio who will be in action this weekend, when the All Blacks face Australia in the World Cup final.

A scorer of two tries in his Test debut against Australia, the 27-19 loss in Sydney in August, Milner-Skudder is set to lock horns with Australia again in Saturday’s World Cup final at Twickenham.

The victor will be revealed at the World Rugby Awards dinner at Battersea Evolution, London on Sunday.

RWC 1999 victor and panel member George Gregan said: “All three nominees have been outstanding in their own individual performance and shown consistency which has seen them contribute in a huge way to how their teams have performed this year”.

“It’s surreal that as a child I sat and watched the Rugby World Cup and now I’m one of the guys kids watch”. He wrote his name into the Rugby World Cup history books when he started Georgia’s opening win over Tonga, becoming the youngest player in the tournament’s history at 18 years and 340 days.

Glasgow midfielder Bennett was a similarly potent attacking weapon for the Scots in their run to the World Cup quarter-finals, the 22-year-old dotting down three times in his four games.

“We felt that we did so well as a team and were unfortunate not to progress further in the competition”.