Caelan Doris scoops PRO14's Next-Gen Star of the Season award

Wed, 09 Sep, 2020 - 15:08

Simon Lewis

Caelan Doris’s preparations for this Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 final against Ulster received a timely boost on Wednesday when the Leinster back-rower was named the tournament’s Next-Gen Star of the Season.

The award for Under-23s playing in the PRO14 came on hot on the heels of a man of the match performance in Leinster’s semi-final victory over Munster last Friday night at Aviva Stadium as Doris, 22, topped a poll of media representatives, former players and coaches from the five countries with participating teams.

Doris has enjoyed a breakout season in 2019-20, played 10 times in the PRO14 this season, scoring one try and winning two man of the match awards while also earning an Ireland Test debut in Andy Farrell’s maiden team selection as head coach for the 2020 Six Nations opener against Scotland.

It was a good day all round for Leinster’s young back-rowers with Max Deegan and Will Connors two of the three forwards from the province voted onto the Guinness PRO14 Dream Team for the 2019-20 season, the other being veteran Australian lock Scott Fardy.

Fellow finalists Ulster had two players voted onto the Dream Team, all of whom had to play a minimum of eight regular-season PRO14 games during the current campaign with John Cooney named at scrum-half and Stuart McCloskey in at inside centre.

There were no Munster or Connacht players named in a poll that saw Edinburgh lead the way with six selections, while Dragons, Toyota Cheetahs, Benetton Rugby and Cardiff Blues all earned one spot each.

Guinness PRO14 Dream Team 2019/20:

1 Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh)

2 Joseph Dweba (Toyota Cheetahs)

3 Leon Brown (Dragons)

4 Scott Fardy (Leinster)

5 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh)

6 Max Deegan (Leinster)

7 Will Connors (Leinster)

8 Bill Mata (Edinburgh)

9 John Cooney (Ulster)

10 Jaco van der Walt (Edinburgh)

11 Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh)