Kiwi Nick Evans is poised for entry into a very exclusive England club

Three legends of the game will be inducted into the Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame at a star-studded event at Twickenham on May 31.

Nick Evans, Matt Dawson and Jason Leonard will join the exclusive club following a ceremony the night before the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Final.

Dawson and Leonard join several of their fellow 2003 World Cup winners in the Hall of Fame, with Kyran Bracken, Ben Kay and Jason Robinson inducted last year – and Jonny Wilkinson, Josh Lewsey, Lawrence Dallaglio, Simon Shaw, Richard Hill, Neil Back and Phil Vickery all also welcomed in recent times.

And New Zealander Evans, a one-club man with Harlequins where he made more than 200 Premiership Rugby appearances and helped the club lift their first League title in 2012, joins them on the illustrious list.

Dawson was one of the last generation of players to begin their rugby career during the amateur era before transitioning into professional rugby with aplomb. He would finish his career with a whole host of domestic and international honours.

Evans was a one-club legend, record points-scorer, fly-half turned coach and arguably one of the best Premiership Rugby imports of all time. However it could have been so different as for some time it looked like Aussie rules football might benefit from the Auckland-born talent.

Meanwhile, with a record-setting 114 England caps to his name and 290 appearances for Harlequins, Leonard truly is English rugby royalty.

You name it and it’s likely that Leonard has done it in a career that started at Barking and ended at Harlequins, with stints with Saracens, England and the British and Irish Lions in between.

He now continues to break new ground as earlier this year he was appointed chairman of the British and Irish Lions board, having previously also been president of the RFU since hanging up his boots. Not bad for a carpenter from Barking.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

2018-19: Matt Dawson, Nick Evans, Jason Leonard;

2017: Steve Borthwick, Kyran Bracken, Nick Easter, Ben Kay, Jason Robinson;

2016: Neil Back, Mark Cueto, Richard Hill, Mike Tindall, Hugh Vyvyan;

2015: Lawrence Dallaglio, Josh Lewsey, Simon Shaw, James Simpson-Daniel, Phil Vickery, Peter Wheeler, Jonny Wilkinson;

2014: Rob Baxter, George Chuter, Martin Johnson, Lewis Moody, Ed Morrison, Tom Walkinshaw;

2013: Mike Catt, Martin Corry, Warren Gatland, Austin Healey, Charlie Hodgson, Kenny Logan, Jim Mallinder, Conor O’Shea, Dean Richards, Andy Robinson, John Wells.

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