The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Scotland pair in the running for the coveted Six Nations player of the championship
Scotland hang on to fifth place in latest world rankings
Scotland stars Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell are in the running to be crowned Six Nations player of the championship.
They are up against players from all the other five countries for the accolade, which Hogg won last year.
If the full-back takes the award he will become the first player since Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll in 2007 to win it back to back.
Hogg again impressed in this year’s tournament, scoring three tries in five games, including a double in the win over Ireland that won him the man of the match award, and creating other scores for Tim Visser and Tommy Seymour.
Russell was man of the match against Wales and Italy. His haul was 42 points, from seven penalties, eight conversions and one try.
Champions England have three of the dozen nominations, with Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell and Joe Launchbury regarded as among the favourites.
France duo Louis Picamoles and Camille Lopez, CJ Stander and Conor Murray from Ireland, Wales pair Rhys Webb and Ken Owens, and Italy captain Sergio Parisse make up the short-list.
Public voting for the award via the official Six Nations website closes at noon today.
Meanwhile, Scotland will avoid South Africa, France and Wales at the Rugby World Cup in 2019 after hanging on to fifth spot in the world rankings.
Saturday’s 29-0 victory over Italy ensured Vern Cotter bowed out with his side still in the nation’s highest-ever place in the order put together by governing body World Rugby.
The rankings have extra significance this year as they are used to determine the seedings for May’s draw for the 2019 World Cup to be held in Japan
Having stayed in fifth after a third Six Nations win at the weekend, they now know who they can and cannot face from the countries to have qualified automatically for Japan.
Scotland will be in the second seeds for the draw, along with France, South Africa and Wales, who occupy sixth, seventh and eighth in the rankings, respectively.
They will face one of New Zealand, England, Australia or Ireland from the top seeds and one from Argentina, hosts Japan, Georgia and Italy in ‘band three’.
With Gregor Townsend taking over as head coach from Cotter this summer, much can change over the next two years, but Scotland may prefer to draw Ireland from the top seeds after beating them in this year’s Six Nations.
They will be happy to have avoided the Springboks, who they lost to during the pool stage of the World Cup in 2015, and will probably want to avoid Argentina from the third seeds.