Ulster and Ireland Rugby stars Rob Herring and Stuart McCloskey were the special guests at Banbridge Academy’s annual rugby awards ceremony held in school last week. Hooker Rob Herring is an integral part of the Ulster set up having played some 140 times and captained on numerous occasions. He also has 3 caps for Ireland and is regularly involved in Ireland training camps. Stuart McCloskey has played 78 times for Ulster and made 2 full Ireland appearances. He is a rampaging centre who is sure to further his Ireland career in the very near future. Banbridge Academy were delighted to welcome two such a high profile guests to their awards and they thank Ulster Rugby for their assistance with this.

Herring and McCloskey presented trophies to captains, players of the year and most improved players and also took the chance to say a few words of encouragement to the boys. They commended the players on their hard work throughout the season and congratulated them on another fine year in terms of results and performances. He also commented on the commitment of the coaching staff, namely the school staff of Brian Leslie, Brian O’Shaughnessy, Tim Baxter, Jonny Erskine, Chris Beacom, Clarke Watson & Alan Harvey and the outside coaches Roy Stevenson, Andrew Craig, Robbie Ervine, Michael Daly, Toby Baxter, Jemma Jackson and Stevie McCusker of Knowledge Fitness and paid tribute to their hard work in coaching, refereeing and organisation of teams.

The highlight of the season was undoubtedly the 1^st XV winning the Schools Trophy after a strong finish to the season. But beyond that rugby remains strong in the Academy with six teams playing each Saturday and two Under 12 teams playing each Friday. Academy rugby continues to improve and with the strong support of the headmaster Mr McLoughlin and the Board of Governors led by Mr Mark Orr the future is bright for this thriving area of school life.

A full breakdown of the individual award winners is below:

U12 ‘A’ XV          

Player of Year:     Connor Magee

Thomas Williamson

Fergus Alway

Daniel Hutchinson

U12 ‘B’ XV

Player of Year:     Ethan Vince

James Seifert

U13 ‘A’ XV          

Captain:                   Andrew Richardson

Player of Year:     Noah Myles

Most Improved:   Scott Allen

U14 ‘A’ XV           

Captain:                    Ben Bradshaw

Player of Year:      Marcus McNeill

Most Improved:   Daniel Brown

Medallion XV      

Captain:                   Niall Malcolmson

Player of Year:      Jake Houston

Most Improved:   Jason Fitsimmons

3^rd XV                    

Captain:                   Ryan Armstrong

Player of Year:     Alex Ferguson

Most Improved:   Joel Middleton

2^nd XV                    

Captain:                    Scott Buchanan

Player of Year:      Ross Cockcroft

Most Improved:   Cameron Martin

1^st XV                     

Captain;                  Timothy Beattie

Top Try Scorer:   Adam Hanna

Overall P.O.Y.:     Andrew Denver

U6 P.O.Y. :              Alex Shannon

L6 P.O.Y.:               Andrew Denver

Yr 12 P.O.Y.:          Adam Hanna

Most Improved;   Peter Sleith

Clubman:                Clyde Scott

Ulster Rep:            Adam Hanna (Ulster U17)

Team of the year

U14 XV – playing record