Banbridge Academy held their annual Rugby Awards Ceremony last week to mark an end to their season and honour the standout players for all nine rugby teams in the school.

Headmaster, Mr Robin McLoughlin, 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. He 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 school staff; Brian Leslie, Brian O’Shaughnessy, Tim Baxter, Jonny Erskine, Chris Beacom, Chris Nash and Alan Harvey and the external coaches; Roy Stevenson, Andrew Craig, Robbie Ervine, Michael Daly, Jemma Jackson, Chris Patterson, Calum Russell and Stevie McCusker (Knowledge Fitness) and paid tribute to their hard work in coaching, refereeing and the organisation of teams.

The performance of all the teams was commended, with six teams playing each Saturday, an U13 ‘B’ team playing midweek and two U12 teams playing each Friday. The numbers playing the game are certainly on the rise. The U12 and U13 teams in particular, had very strong seasons with the U12 winning the Down High tournament and the U13 being crowned Team of the Year due to an outstanding playing record.

A full breakdown of the individual award winners is below:

U12 ‘A’ XV          

Player of Year:     Ryan Hanna

Callum Little

Andrew Jackson

Michael Porter

U12 ‘B’ XV

Player of Year:     Jamie McGaw

Zac Foster

U13 ‘A’ XV          

Captain:                 Fergus Alway

Player of Year:     Daniel Hutchinson

Most Improved:   Thomas Humphries

U13 ‘B’ XV           

Captain:                 Kian Moran

Player of Year:     Adam Kidd

Most Improved:   Freddy Elliot

U14 ‘A’ XV          

Captain:                 Scott Allen

Player of Year:     Scott Allen

Most Improved:   Ryan Wall

Medallion XV      

Captain:                 Ben Bradshaw

Player of Year:     Marcus McNeill

Most Improved:   Joel Good/ Ollie Norris

3^rd XV                    

Player of Year:     Eoin Doyle

Most Improved:   JB McElroy

2^nd XV                    

Captain:                 Stephen Hanna

Player of Year:     Korey Knox

Most Improved:   Jonny Martin

1^st XV                     

Captain:                Andrew Denver

Top Try Scorer: Andrew Denver &

Matthew Robinson

Overall P.O.Y.:    Andrew Denver

U6 P.O.Y. :            Andrew Denver

L6 P.O.Y.:             Adam Hanna

Yr 12 P.O.Y.:        Jake Houston

Most Improved:   Jake Beattie

Clubman:             Lloyd Donaldson

Ulster Rep:       Adam Hanna – Ulster U18 &19

Irish U18 Clubs & Schools

Team of the year

U13 XV