VIDEO: Kevin Sinfield on his SPOTY nomination

Kevin Sinfield has admitted that he’s honoured to be representing the sport of Rugby League at this Sunday’s Sports Personality of the Year awards.

Sinfield is the first ever RL player to have been shortlisted for the honour, which will be handed out this weekend at a ceremony in Belfast.

He is third favourite with most bookmakers for the award, competing with the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill and Andy Murray for the title.

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And, as he says in our exclusive video below, Sinfield is simply humbled to be helping put the sport on a bigger stage.

“I’m just honoured to be representing rugby league,” he says. “It’s given me everything in my life and my career to date and this makes it all worthwhile.”

Sinfield also stressed that it didn’t matter which Rugby League player got the nomination onto the list, it’s just vital that the sport gets some exposure this weekend.

“The important thing to remember at the end of the day, whether it was me or anyone else, was to get someone on that shortlist and be up there representing the sport,” he insists.

“Instead of having our usual few seconds of airtime on the night, we’ll be fighting with all those other sports. It’s great rugby league has some recognition at last, and we’ll have a good few minutes on the show on Sunday in front of millions of viewers. It’s key for our game; it’s an international audience that’ll be tuning in and it’s a massive opportunity.