Danny Cipriani, who completed his first international season with a tour de force for England against Ireland in the RBS Six Nations Championship in March, has been nominated for both the players' player of the season award and its equivalent for the young player by the Professional Rugby Players' Association. The London Wasps fly half said he was “humbled” by the nominations.

The awards will be decided on May 21 and the 20-year-old Cipriani is one of five backs named in the senior category, alongside his club colleagues, Riki Flutey and Paul Sackey, James Simpson-Daniel, of Gloucester, and Olly Barkley, of Bath. The young player group also includes James Haskell, of Wasps, Tom Croft, of Leicester, and Danny Care and Chris Robshaw, the Harlequins pair.

One of Wales's most promising young flankers, Ben Lewis, will be out for the next six months and will miss his country's visit to South Africa next month. Lewis, 21, becomes the fifth player from the Ospreys to require surgery during the close season, in his case the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee.

Craig White will complete the Wales coaching panel after accepting the role of conditioning coach to the national squad, with his duties also taking in two regional teams, Cardiff Blues and Newport Gwent Dragons. White worked with Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, in Ireland and at Wasps before moving to Leicester and he travelled with the Lions to New Zealand in 2005.

Tom Varndell, capped three times on the wing by England, has re-signed for Leicester but Frank Murphy, the scrum half who played in last season's Heineken Cup final, will be leaving the club to join Connacht.

Nottingham, whose revived fortunes carried them to third place in National League One this season, will stay at Meadow Lane, the Notts County football ground, on a rolling one-year contract.