Georgian player shortlisted for World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year award

The youngest of Georgian national rugby team players has been nominated for World Rugby’s inaugural Breakthrough Player of the Year award.

Vasil Lobzhanidze, 18, was named alongside Scotland’s Mark Bennett and New Zealand’s Nehe Milner-Skudder for the prize.

Watch a video below about each of the three nominees.

The World Rugby website described the Georgia’s Lobzhanidze as the following:

"The diminutive scrum-half made his test debut against Germany in the European Nations Cup on 7 February and has quickly established himself as his country’s number one. 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. Lobzhanidze also played against New Zealand and Namibia to help Georgia secure qualification for RWC 2019, all only four months after he inspired his country to a first World Rugby U20 Trophy title.”

In order to be eligible to be nominated, players had to have played less than one year of senior international rugby. The nominees were selected by an independent panel comprising of former Australia scrum-half George Gregan, former Argentina captain Felipe Contepomi and journalists Stephen Jones, Sarah Mockford and Jim Kayes.

The winner will be revealed at the World Rugby Awards dinner at Battersea Evolution, London, on November 1.