The Ayrshire-born 22-year-old, who scored three World Cup tries in helping inspire Scotland to their quarter-final clash with Australia, is up against New Zealand winger Nehe Milner-Skudder and Georgia scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze for the award, with the victor to be revealed at the World Rugby Awards dinner on November 1.
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He said: “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”.
The nominees were selected by an independent panel, comprising former Australia scrum-half George Gregan, former Argentina Captain Felipe Contepomi and journalists Stephen Jones, Sarah Mockford and Jim Kayes.
SCOTLAND centre Mark Bennett has been named as a nominee for the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year award.
Players must have played less than one year of senior worldwide rugby.
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 became the youngest ever player at a Rugby World Cup when he started in the pool game against Tonga.
Bennett celebrates scoring a try during the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal match against Australia.
However, his nomination and the the words of Gregan may now be of a few small consolation following that subsequent and heartbreaking 35-34 defeat.
“We felt that we did so well as a team and were unfortunate not to progress further in the competition”.
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The 22-year-old from Cumnock has been tipped for great things since first catching the eye as a teenager when helping Ayr to the Scottish title and putting in a string of outstanding performances for the Scotland under-21 side.
