RISING star Tom Dunn is hoping that he can follow in the footsteps of the previous winners of the LV= Breakthrough Player award by achieving ‘awesome things’ in the rugby world.

The 22-year-old Bath Academy hooker, from Studley, is one of the ten nominees for the 2014/2015 award thanks to an eye-catching display in round three of the LV= Cup as his side beat Harlequins 23-21 at the end of last month.

Dunn completed five carries whilst also completing 15 tackles without missing a hit as Bath triumphed at the Stoop and is now waiting to see if he can succeed team-mate Ollie Devoto – last year’s winner – when the Breakthrough Player is announced in the lead up to next month’s LV=Cup final.

“I found out about it on social media. I got a tweet from the LV=Cup people saying that I’d been nominated and I was very flattered,” said the former Chippenham man, who will officially graduate to Bath’s first team next season after signing a two-year contract in January.

“Harlequins are the sort of team that like to play with the ball in hand a lot, so there were plenty of chances for me to tackle in that game.

“I’m not counting my chickens because I haven’t won the award yet but getting nominated is still great.

“When you look at people that have won it in the past like Ollie Devoto, Jack Nowell and Jonny May; these are players that have gone on to achieve awesome things, so hopefully I can too.”

Dunn, who played in last season’s Amlin Challenge Cup final, added: “I’m happy with my season so far.

“I played in the first five Premiership games of the season and then Rob Webber got called up by England, so I played for the first team again during the autumn period,’’ he added.

“I’ve signed my two-year contract and I’m delighted with that. I’ve been at the academy since 2007 and I love being here.”