News

2016 saw the introduction of a number of new awards for outstanding achievement which were presented at the Llanishen RFC Mini and Junior Awards Day.

The new awards are there to acknowledge the hard work that our volunteers make towards ensuring the Club is the success that it is; for excellence and achievement in coaching; and to congratulate and celebrate our most outstanding team.

Awards day is a fantastic chance to showcase our talent in our age groups. However the new awards are there to shine a light on the excellence that has arguably always been there, but until now, not necessarily rewarded or accredited to the people that deserve it.

Volunteer of the Year:

Our first new award was for the Volunteer of the Year.

A large number of people help to make the club great. We pride ourselves on the play that we see on the pitch, but also for the commitment we see from all our teams of volunteers. The Club cannot function without these people.

One of the hardest and most overlooked roles in the club is that of Fixture Secretary. Claire Thomas has been outstanding in this post and worked tirelessly to ensure that we all got games and were up to speed with fixtures and changes for each week. Claire managed this task industriously and efficiently, often finding last minute replacement games in what has been a challenging and rain-ravaged season.

She has been an effective liaison between all coaches, age groups and other clubs, and has shown that she can truly keep plates spinning and work miracles. A very well-deserved award. Thank you Claire.

Coaches of the Year:

This new award is for excellence in coaching.

We have over 50 volunteer coaches in the M&J section who give countless hours each season over the 10 teams they represent. We must undertake an exercise to put a value on the amount of hours that coaches put into the club in terms of planning, training, match days, developing links and their own personal continued professional development.

The inaugural  Award was presented to Stu Richards, Jim Charles and Gary Phillips of the Under 12’s.

The Under 12’s won 2 tournaments this year: St Peters and the Newport High School Old Boys Tournament. More importantly they went on to win the Blues Cup final in May of this year. They are the first side from Llanishen RFC to have achieved this.

The success is down to an extremely talented and dedicated set of coaches in Jim, Stu and Gary, who have developed skills, understanding and precision in a group of players who can now play quality 15 a-side rugby. This is not an easy task when working with any team let alone 11 & 12 year olds! It is noteworthy that 4 of their squad had not played rugby before this season and this goes to show what can be achieved with a good set of coaches. Congratulations to you all.

Team of the Year:

The award speaks for itself and it’s awarded for high achievement.

In any other year the award could have gone to a number of age groups, and to be fair the performances this season have been outstanding across the board.

However, this year the award goes to the Under 12’s, who are the first side from our Club to lift the Blues Cup. A massive congratulations to the whole squad – the club is extremely proud of you.

We are in the process of collating photos from the M&J’s Awards Day.  If you have a picture to send please email it to Rich Harvey