Ulster Rugby stars Andrew Warwick and Jonathan Simpson were the special guests at Banbridge Academy’s Annual Rugby Awards Ceremony held in school last week. Prop Andrew Warwick is an integral part of the Ulster set up having played some 70 times over the past four seasons. He is a dynamic ball carrier who scrimmaging is improving with every game he plays and the Academy were delighted to welcome such a high profile guest to their awards. Jonathan Simpson, a Banbridge Academy former pupil, has been involved with Ulster for three seasons now and finally made his break-through playing four times for the province this season before a neck injury has curtailed his participation. While at the Academy, Simpson represented both Ulster and Ireland Schools while playing for the school 1st XV. The Academy was delighted to welcome back on of their finest, and most successful, past players.

Warwick and Simpson 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, Tim Baxter, Jonny Erskine, Chris Beacom, Brian O’Shaughnessy & Alan Harvey and the outside coaches Roy Stevenson, Andrew Craig, Michael Ross, Stevie Reddick, Matthew Bell & Mike Bentley and paid tribute to their hard work in coaching, refereeing and organisation of teams.

While there were no trophies this year it was still a successful season in terms of playing numbers 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:

Peter McGrath
Ethan Todd
Jack Jasztal
Callum Toal

U12 ‘B’ XV
Player of Year:

Isaac Tugwell
Isaac Waddington

U13 ‘A’ XV
Captain: Ben Bradshaw
Player of Year: Marcus McNeill
Most Improved: Matthew Daly

U14 ‘A’ XV
Captain: Niall Malcolmson
Player of Year: Dovydas Liutvinas
Most Improved: Marc Murphy

Medallion XV
Captain: Adam Hanna
Player of Year: Adam Hanna
Most Improved: Scott Russell

3rd XV
Captain: Ryan Armstrong
Player of Year: Clyde Scott
Most Improved: Charlie Millsopp

2nd XV
Captain: Scott Buchanan
Player of Year: Jordan Poots
Most Improved: Stuart Totten

1st XV
Captain: Toby Baxter
Top Try Scorer: Robbie Mathers
Try of the Year: Jack Dolaghan
Overall P.O.Y.: Jonathan McIntosh
U6 P.O.Y. : Jonathan McIntosh
L6 P.O.Y.: Chrisy Patterson
Yr 12 P.O.Y.: Andrew Denver
Most Improved: Robert Ashfield
Clubman: Jack Dolaghan

Team of the year
U13 XV