The RPA Awards 2014

After months of blood, sweat and the occasional tear we have nearly reached the end of the Domestic and European seasons for another year and it is safe to say that both competitions have exceeded all of our expectations and truly delighted us. The rugby calendar is a whirlwind; fixture after fixture, month after month however on Wednesday 21st May we paused for a moment to pay tribute to the outstanding achievements of a number of outstanding individuals at the RPA Computacenter Players’ Awards.

The Rugby Players Association (RPA) Awards is one of the largest award ceremonies in the calendar and like the Aviva Premiership Awards it is an absolutely stunning celebration befitting of the talented individuals that play our great game. As a player there isn't a greater honour than being endorsed by your team mates and with the level of talent that is currently housed within the professional game now winning an RPA award is even more special. As well as celebrating such talent the evening's ceremony also had another important role and that was to showcase the work of Restart - the official charity of the RPA. Restart supports professional players that are forced to retire though illness or injury and provides the players and their families with financial, practical and emotional support through what can be an extremely traumatic time. The auction at the RPA Awards is famous for boasting some of the most coveted lots that you can imagine and under the guidance of the extremely talented and persuasive auctioneer, Johnny Gould, the 2014 auction raised thousands of pounds for this incredible charity. Needless to say yours truly did not walk away with a lot... sadly they were just a little out of my price range!!!!

During the course of the night 9 awards were handed out by the superb Martin Bayfield and they included the Computacenter Players' Player of the Year 2014, LV= Young Player of the Year 2014, TAG Heuer Special Merit Award and one individual was inducted into the RPA Hall of Fame. 

This year's Computacenter Players Player of the Year was awarded to Vereniki Goneva who has had an outstanding season; he scored 12 tries in 18 Aviva Premiership appearances and added another 2 to his tally in the Heineken Cup. Niki also bucked the trend and decided to choose the UK over France when he extended his contract at the Leicester Tigers in early April. I'm sure that I can speak for every single fan of the Aviva Premiership when I say that the competition is much richer for his presence and that we are all very grateful that the bright lights of Leicester eclipsed the vineyards of the French countryside!!!!

Unsurprisingly Mike Brown added to his collection of honours when he picked up the England Player of the Year award. Mike’s interview was one of the best of the night and Martin started by asking him whether he has allowed himself a little moment to smile and say 'yes this has been a good year', he simply replied ‘no, we all know that I never smile!’ Mike also confirmed, much to the audience’s relief that a ‘little niggle’ wouldn’t stop him heading out to New Zealand, adding the caveat ‘if I am selected’. Naturally this amused everyone including the guest if honour Stuart Lancaster and Bayfs swiftly reassured Mike when he said; ‘I’ve think you’ve got that one nailed!’ 

Steve Borthwick received the TAG Heuer Special Merit Award and due to the fact that he, hopefully, has a rather large game at the weekend his good friend Danny Grewcock picked up the award for him. Danny shared with us a few stories from his time with Mr Bothwick and through one he assured us just how tough Steve is and exactly why he had no doubts about the fact that is more than likely to at the weekend. Danny recounted a time when Steve had an unfortunate injury to a very personal area of his body and on a Tuesday had to have a minor operation on it... 3 day later he proceeded to run out and play a full 80 minutes of rugby. Ever the professional Bayfs took the story in his stride and very politely mentioned that he didn’t think that he would be talking about that type of ‘rugby ball’ on stage in front of everyone but there’s always a first for everything! After the humour had died down the entire room sent their best regards to Steve for his recovery and equally wished the whole Saracens squad 'Good Luck' against Toulon. 

Throughout the night there were other many other awards and inspirational stories, Jonathan Davies was inducted into the RPA Hall of Fame, Richard Parks recounted his inspirational story following his retirement from rugby and Stuart Lancaster looked ahead to the Summer Tour.

It was a truly stunning evening, the RPA were absolutely impeccable hosts and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them sincerely and also to congratulate all of the award winners.