Leinster heroes unveil new stars
LEINSTER Rugby stars Dave Kearney, Dominic Ryan and Bryan Byrne unveiled the future stars of Leinster and Irish rugby at the DkIT/ Leinster Rugby Future Star Awards last week.
The awards honour the best players who take part in the u19 North East rugby competitions each year. 45 players were nominated with the 15 then selected through a combination of voting in the Argus and Drogheda Independent and a committee vote.
Colm Finnegan who is IRFU Rugby Programmes Officer was MC for the evening and he began by discussing his pathway from a student at DkIT to his current role with the IRFU. Derek Crilly, Sports and Societies Officer in DkIT congratulated all 45 nominees and also discussed the progression of DkIT in recent years, referencing the new DKIT Sport facility and Sports Scholarship programme.
Sports scholarship student Tiernan Gonnelly spoke about his experience to date in DkIT. He highlighted the quality of his course and also discussed the support he has received as a scholarship student. He stated that the High Performance Unit in DKIT Sport has helped him develop his strength for adult rugby.
Billy Phelan, Leinster Rugby Community Rugby Officer spoke about the growth of these awards with almost twice as many people attending this year’s event compared with last year. He stated that the talent in the competition was huge and hoped that many players would go on to compete at a higher level. Billy thanked the schools and the club coaches who are involved with all the teams.
The Future Star 15 team was then announced with the winners invited on stage to collect their specially designed jersey which was kindly sponsored by local sportswear company CX+Sport.