Aviva Premiership Rugby Awards

The 2013/14 Aviva Premiership Season has been simply breathtaking, the matches have been closer than ever before and although some clubs’ seasons aren’t over just yet on Thursday 15th May it was time to pause for a moment and celebrate at the Aviva Premiership Awards.

The Awards Ceremony took place at the Park Lane Hilton, and the evening was hosted by BT Sport’s Craig Doyle. Craig is a fantastic presenter and interviewer and he had the audience in the palm on his hand for the entire night as he seamlessly led us through 10 awards and 10 brilliant interviews, more about them later!!  

Prior to the champagne reception as media we had the opportunity to speak to a number of the nominees and find out just how they were feeling about the evening, their seasons' and their forthcoming matches, if they had any. Firstly I spoke to Chris Pennell and having interviewed him a month or so ago it was great to congratulate him in person for being included in the England Training Squad. Chris' team may have had a difficult season and now find themselves in the Championship however right now he is focused on his own game and seeing what he can do to impress Stuart Lancaster. Next I chatted to Sale's captain, Dan Braid, was nominated for a number of awards and he was on tenderhooks... not only waiting to see if he’d won any of them, but secondly due to the fact that his wife is about to give birth any day now!! Finally I spoke to Anthony Watson who was nominated for the Landrover Discovery of the Season Award and whilst he was thrilled to be nominated he did admit that it was slightly bitter sweet given the 'heartbreak' that he and his team are still recovering from after their defeat to Harlequins last weekend. 

As I mentioned there were 10 Awards that were handed out over the course of night and I won't dwell on every single one, instead I thought that would provide you with a few of highlights and quotes from the night that you might not have heard about reading the articles online or following on Twitter, the inside scoop if you'd like to call it that!!

The speech of the night went to young Billy Vunipola who was awarded the Landrover Discovery Of The Season award. Since joining Saracens this year Billy has gone from strength to strength and naturally Craig asked whether there was anything in particular that has made him push himself hard this season and progress. He answered truthfully saying that the fact that his brother is with him at training every day pushes him because he if he isn’t working hard enough Mako gives him a 'clip around the ear'!!!! Secondly when he was asked what his mantra was before a game he simply said that he simply tells himself to run as hard as possible and then I hope for the best!! It seems so simple doesn’t it!!?! Then I supposed when you are 6 foot 2 inches tall, 19 stone and bursting with natural talent you don’t need to complicate things do you!?!

A couple of the winners were not in attendance on the night and instead they had their awards picked up for them by a colleague or in the case of Northampton's Tom Collins his Director Of Rugby Jim Mallinder. Tom won the ITV Sport Try Of The Season for his stunning finish against Gloucester Rugby and of course Jim took the opportunity to sing the young praises of his young winger. Ever the professional Craig didn't let Jim leave the stage without grilling him on the East Midlands Knockout Derby and Jim he had the room in stitches when he suggested that Richard Cockerill wasn't at the event due to the fact that he was practicing spot of yoga at home to calm himself down before such a huge match whereas he preferred to have a few beers!!

The last award of the night was the big one, the Aviva Premiership Player Of The Season and I believe that the whole country smiled when Mike Brown was announced to be the winner. The award is Mike's third of the year having already won the RBS 6 Nations Player of the Championships and the Man of the Series in the Autumn Internationals, however there is absolutely no hint of complacency from the Harlequins and England Full Back. Mike is a humble guy and took the opportunity to praise the talent and support of his Premiership team mates as well his Director Of Rugby. He also revealed that around the club at Harlequins Conor is known as 'Mike's Dad'!! Seeing Conor after you could tell that he was a very, very proud Dad!!

The evening was a simply stunning celebration of what has been an outstanding season of rugby, it was an honour to have been invited to attend the night and I must say I had a cracking time!! Although the awards are over for another year there is still the small matter of two humungous Aviva Premiership Semi Finals; an East Midlands and a London Derby. In the room last night you could almost taste the excitement and speaking to a number of the players involved in those matches they cannot wait... Schalk Brits summed it up perfectly when he simply said 'this is why we play rugby'.  

In signing off this piece I would like to do two things; firstly I'd like to congratulate all of the award winners and secondly I'd like to thank every single player that took part in this season, whilst handful were nominated and won awards to be great you have to have great competition to play against. Rivalries between teams and within teams bring out the best in professional sportsmen and with three games left of the season prepare yourselves to be amazed and delighted a little more before the final whistle of the final game of the 2013/14 Aviva Premiership is blown and we wave goodbye to the domestic season for another year.