18 May, 15:44
It's down to the wire now for the five contenders who have been shortlisted for the ultimate individual accolade in northern hemisphere rugby, ERC European Player of the Year 2013.

ercrugby.com, official website of the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup club rugby tournaments, has teamed up with "Rugby!" magazine to offer fans content in Italian for the first time. The website attracted over 1 million unique visitors during the 2005/6 European season and the new Italian section will provide unrivalled European club rugby statistics including tournament records, hundreds of player profiles and previews, photographs and results from the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup action involving the six Italian sides competing in Europe.
Welcoming the move Jean-Pierre Lux Chairman of tournament organisers ERC said, "Italy has been a key part of both European tournaments since the launch of the Heineken Cup in 1995 when Benetton Treviso and Milan were the Italian pioneers. The profile of the tournaments in Italy are growing and we hope that the development of the Italian site will contribute to further growth in this important market. ERC plan to continue to develop and improve the Italian offering over the coming months to ensure that ercrugby.com becomes the definitive source of European club rugby news in the three main languages of our two tournaments (England, French and Italian). We are delighted also to have the support of Rugby! magazine".
"Rugby!", the leading rugby magazine in Italy, will be an official partner to ercrugby.com/ita and supply regular articles for the website for the remainder of the 2006/07 season, which reaches its finale with the London 07 Heineken Cup final at the Twickenham Stadium on Sunday, 20 May 2007.
"It's a great pleasure to support ERC to further open their arms to Italian fans in what represents a landmark for Italian rugby" said Enrico Borra, Rugby! editor, "Italian rugby is growing at a strong pace and this new feature in the ERC website will back that growth".
Overmach Rugby Parma, Benetton Treviso and Rugby Calvisano all return to Round 3 Heineken Cup action this weekend in a tournament that see three Italian sides compete for the first time. GRAN Parma, Petrarca Rugby and Viadana return to European Challenge Cup tournament action this weekend.
