The great and the good of Rugby gathered last night at the Burlington Hotel for the Hibernia College IRUPA Rugby Awards. Nick Williams doubled up adding the Players Payer of the Year award to the one he won through the RaboDirect Pro12 last week while Robbie Henshaw won the Young Player award and Simon Zebo took a popular poll conducted among listeners of Newstalk Radio.
Awards ceremonies are a tried and tested way of celebrating a season past and giving an opportunity for sponsors and a business audience to mingle with the stars of the game.
Last night was a very professional event that brought together a diverse group of sponsor organisations from Hibernia College in the headline role to O2, BNY Mellon, Newstalk, Volkswagen, Coca Cola, Heineken and Wolf Blass.
Each was credited in the large screen video presentation that preceded each award, and had a representative on hand to present the major awards.
The night was hosted with humour and ‘tales from the trenches’ by former England international Ben Kay and attracted new Ireland manager Joe Schmidt who chatted with fans before going in, Jonny Sexton, Brian O’Driscoll, all the top players and senior figures in business including Hugo MacNeill of Goldman Sachs.
Nevin Spence was remembered through the naming of the Young Player of the Year award and the raising of €6,000 for the IRFU Charitable Trust through the auctioning of a painting by his sister.
There were over 400 guests for what is one of the major fundraisers of the year for IRUPA and Dennis Hickie indicated one of the most important functions of the association as being the help offred in transitioning from the sport to the post retirement world of a career in business. Hickie was being inducted to the IRUPA Hall of Fame.
The Grand Slam winning Irish Women’s team was there in force as well with the trophy on display though it may have been appropriate to feature their efforts in the otherwise excellent video montage of the season compiled by RTE and TG4.
One other small reflection on the night was the absence of any attention on the club game. It was of course the Professional Players night but on an occasion such as this there may be much to be gained from shining a light on the other levels of the sport that are essential to the ongoing success of the elite end.
Given the recent focus on changes to the club structure with regard to incentives and payment for players and coaches it was a gap that might be remedied in years to come.
Sport for Business was there as a guest of Thinktasc and the University of Ulster for which we are most grateful.
IRUPA CEO Omar Hassanein will be one of the speakers alongside John Hennessey-Niland of the US Embassy, Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business, Pamela Gilpin of ThinkTasc, Adie McGennis of Sigmar, Bernard Brogan, Reggie Corrigan and Richard Sadlier at a special Business Breakfast Briefing on Thursday May 16th on Utilising Sport to Develop Talent in Your Business. Click Here to find out more.
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