Outstanding flanker David Pocock looms as the likely winner among five Wallabies' finalists for the Rugby Union Players' Association (RUPA) Medal for Excellence.

Pocock, centre Adam Ashley-Cooper, five eighth Quade Cooper, halfback Will Genia and lock Nathan Sharpe have been shortlisted for the RUPA award to be presented on December 16.

Sharpe is a two-time winner (2202, 2005) of the award, coveted because it's voted on - on a 3-2-1 basis - by all Australian professional players.

However Pocock's consistent excellence in winning ball at the breakdown throughout the Test season, often in a pack struggling to assert dominance, will be hard to top.

The award also takes into account players' off-field contribution to the community and Pocock is a high achiever there too, having started his own charity - EightyTwenty Vision - to aid the impoverished.

His strongest competition may come from Ashley-Cooper who moved from fullback to make the Wallabies' outside centre spot his own with a series of outstanding Test displays.

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