This year, City of Derry RFC President, William Lynn, must have been bursting with pride as he led our Club delegation to the Ulster Rugby Awards Night. With nominations in three categorys, the efforts of City of Derry RFC have been acknowledged among Ulsters elite clubs and administrators.
The Ulster Rugby Awards Night has not been the happiest of places for City of Derry RFC in recent years. Nominated in the Club of the Year category for the third year in a row, failure to achieve that title, again, was hardly surprising given that the Club had failed to secure that title in two previous years despite accumulating numerous honours during those seasons, and after all, our only achievements this season were to gain promotion as Division 3 Champions in our first season back in the All Ireland league, reach the final of the Ulster Senior Cup, win the Under 15 Cup, finish runners up in the U17 Plate, win the Rosie Stewart Cup, finish runners up in the Ladies All Ireland Plate, and have two of our players, Conall Doherty and Stacey-Lea Kennedy, play for Ireland. Tough category that one! Despite all that, City of Derry RFC genuinely and warmly congratulate this years Club of the Year, Armagh RFC, our bitterest rivals in the previous two seasons, and a Club worthy to grace the All Ireland League, well done!
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For the first time ever City of Derry RFC have had a player nominated in the category of Outstanding Club Player of the Year, Peter Henderson was nominated in this category which is awarded in honour of City of Derry great, Ken Goodall. Stiff competioion in this category meant that Peter lost out to Paul Pritchard who had such an outstanding season for Ballymena in their push for promotion back to Division 1b of the All Ireland League.
Calor Gas Ulster Youth Player of the Year
Conall Doherty
City of Derry RFC
You just cannot overestimate the magnitude of the achievement of Conall Doherty in winning this prestigeous award, it is a tremendous reflextion on the hard work, dedication and inate ability of this remarkable young man, which made him the only representative from Ulster in the Irish Under 18 Club squad/team. It is also a marvelous reflection on the efforts of his coaches and mentors who have guided him through his development within our Youth Rugby set-up. The whole Club rejoices with Conall and wishes him well as he pursues his studies and undoubtedly his stellar rugby career in the future.
