Ashton is the Premiership's top try scorer with 16 this season

All five of the nominees for the 2009-10 Player of the Year award come from Northampton Saints or Saracens.

The shortlist follows the end of the Guinness Premiership regular season and includes the league's top try scorer, Saints wing Chris Ashton.

His team-mates Phil Dowson and Soane Tonga'uiha are contenders, with Sarries duo Schalk Brits and Ernst Joubert.

James Gaskell, Courtney Lawes, Andy Saull, Joe Simpson and Ben Youngs are the Discovery of the Season nominees.

All five nominations for the senior accolade will be at Franklin's Gardens on Sunday as Northampton host Saracens in the first Premiership semi-final.

The nominations recognise the consistently high levels of form shown by the quintet over the course of a compelling season.

606: DEBATE Who are you tipping to lift the award?

Each of the candidates are involved in the knockout phase of the tournament and will hope to propel their teams into a first Premiership final at Twickenham on 29 May.

Players nominated for the Discovery of the Season award must be 21 or under on the date of the Premiership final to qualify, ruling out a number of this season's impressive young performers.

But there is still a wealth of talent with Sale's England Under-20 lock Gaskell, the England-capped Saints utility forward Lawes and flanker Saull, who has played in 20 of Saracens' 22 league games this season.

Also nominated are Leicester's Youngs, another Premiership semi-finalist, who finished third in the Discovery of the Season category last season and won his first England cap against Scotland in March, and fellow scrum-half Simpson of Wasps.

Leicester's Richard Cockerill will hope to retain his Director of Rugby of the Season award after guiding Tigers to the top of the table for the second consecutive season but he is vying with the impressive Jim Mallinder at Saints.

Andy Key guided Leeds to 10th place in the Premiership, with notable wins over Wasps and London Irish away, and he completes the three-man line-up.

Premiership Player of the Season nominees:
Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints), Schalk Brits (Saracens), Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints), Ernst Joubert (Saracens), Soane Tonga'uiha (Northampton Saints)

Discovery of the Season nominees:
James Gaskell (Sale Sharks), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Andy Saull (Saracens), Joe Simpson (London Wasps), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

Director of Rugby of the Season nominees:
Richard Cockerill (Leicester Tigers), Andy Key (Leeds Carnegie), Jim Mallinder (Northampton Saints)

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