Cardiff's Tom Bowen has been named the United Rugby Championship's Next-Gen Player of the Season following a string of impressive performances during the 2025/26 season. This comes after he picked up a host of prizes at Cardiff Rugby's recent awards night, being named Breakthrough Player of the Season and Fans' Player of the Season, while his excellent try in the play-off-clinching victory over the DHL Stormers at the Arms Park was named the club's Try of the Season. Now Bowen has been chosen as the URC Next-Gen Player of the Season through a vote by the media. The award was open to players who were 23 and under and had no more than five international caps at the start of the campaign, while they also had to have made at least nine appearances during the league campaign. Bowen, who turned 20 last month, is uncapped at Test level by Wales, but is certainly winning admirers with his electrifying running game and acrobatic finishing. He scored six tries in his 11 appearances for Cardiff during the URC's regular league season, while he crossed 10 times in all, including a double against Ireland in the U20s Six Nations Championship. Bowen couldn't hide his delight when asked to describe what winning the URC Next-Gen Player of the Season award meant to him. 'I'm over the moon to be honest,' he said. 'It's been a pretty special season, making the BKT URC Play-Offs, making history for Cardiff. It's a club I have grown up watching. I'm a local boy and Cardiff is my home club. To break through in the season that we have had is pretty special. The season has gone so quickly. It feels like yesterday we were kicking off the season against the Lions at the start. The whole season has just been so enjoyable and I just love playing at the Arms Park.' Fellow Cardiff winger, Josh Adams, who has made 70 appearances for Wales, believes Bowen will make his Test debut soon. 'Absolutely he could,' Adams told Walesonline when asked if Bowen has the potential to represent Wales at senior level. 'Certainly he could. I think whenever Bows has been given the opportunity to play he's done nothing wrong at all. He's always threatening when he has the ball. That's Bows' point of difference if you like. It's like his USP; it's how good he is moving with the ball. He's agile and his centre of gravity helps that. We have a couple of digs about that but he takes it well. He's super agile on his feet, he's quick, he's got great explosive power. As a winger he ticks most boxes in terms of that.'