Christophers nominated for Young Player award

By Duncan Wood
April 26 2002

Phil Christophers' excellent season looks to have been acknowledged by his peers. He is among the names who are nominated for the PRA Players' Young Player of the Year award. It's thoroughly deserved.

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The fact that Phil Christophers looks set to be among the final 6 candidates for PRA Players' Young Player of the Season Award completes an incredible 12 months for him.

I'm sure he'll forgive me for saying so but, outside of Leicester and Brive, not that many people had really heard of him when he joined Bristol last summer.

In fact, his signing was rather overshadowed by the unveiling at the relevant press conference of Jason Little and Andrew Higgins. Phil couldn't attend so all the focus was on the other two.

Obviously since then, he has forged a name for himself either on the left wing or in the centre. He's even popped up at fullback. His performances for Bristol have led to his graduation from the England U21 setup to the England A team.

He has made 24 starts so far this season which puts him behind only Alex Brown, Jason Little and Paul Johnstone in the appearance stakes. He has also scored 9 tries which is just one behind David Rees.

He'll be up against the likes of Sale's Charlie Hodgson, Gloucester's James Forrester and London Irish's Declan Danaher for the award which will be announced on May 28th.

Good luck and well done!