The annual Leinster Awards Ball was held in Dublin on Friday evening, with hooker Bernard Jackman announced as the province’s Senior Player of the Year.
Over 400 Leinster supporters, club members and players attended the gala event which honoured every facet of the game from grassroots to senior level.
Leinster and Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman was voted the Bank of Ireland Senior Player of the Year by the supporters.
Accepting the award, Jackman said: “This has come as a real surprise because there have been so many outstanding candidates this year, not just in the pack but right across the back-line.
“I am hugely proud to receive the award and I would like to thank Bank of Ireland and all the supporters for voting for me.
“I feel a bit strange receiving this personal accolade because I couldn’t have done it without the support of the coaching staff and especially my team-mates over the last year.
“So I would like to dedicate it to them as well as to my friends and family who have been hugely supportive throughout my career.
“It is a massive compliment. Highlights? One of the areas that we targeted improving on at the start of the year was our away form. We have become a side who consistently performs on the road and the victories against Munster, Cardiff, the Ospreys and the Llanelli Scarlets show this.
“Everyone knows how difficult it is to win away from home. I also took great satisfaction from the home victories over Leicester Tigers and more recently over Munster,” he added.
“The six-month spell I spent out of the Leinster squad through injury was probably the best thing to happen to me from a rugby perspective because everything that I have achieved since then has been motivated from that period.
“I am proud to represent the province of my birth and I appreciate how lucky I am to play in a squad of this calibre.
“I was delighted to get recalled to the Ireland team, but from a Leinster perspective this year has been a real team effort from everybody. Hopefully we can continue our good form over the next few weeks in our two games against the Dragons.”
Meanwhile, Ireland-capped winger Luke Fitzgerald was the winner of the Powerade Leinster Young Player of the Year award.
Blackrock second row Geri Healy, who is gearing up for next month’s European Championship, won the Women’s Player of the Year, while in the O2 Club and Leinster League Player of the Year, the awards went to Tullow RFC and Seapoint’s Johnny Walsh respectively.
The Powerade School of the Year went to CBC Monkstown while Old Belvedere’s Colm Brennan scooped the inaugural Evening Herald Club PRO of the Year.
The FM104 Try of the Year was awarded to Jamie Heaslip and club captain Brian O’Driscoll won the Trapiche Wines Tackle of the Year.
Jack Kirwan of De La Salle Palmerston was inducted into the Kenilworth Motors Hall of Fame, while the soon-to-be retired Keith Gleeson was acknowledged for outstanding service to both Leinster and Ireland with a Special Merit award.
Clubs also accepting awards on the night were:
Lansdowne (J3 League)
Old Belvedere (J4 League)
Blackrock College (JP Fanagan League Premier – Super Six – Group 1)
Newbridge (Leinster League Division 2)
Navan (Provincial Seconds League Division 1)
Coolmine (Provincial Seconds League Division 2)
Suttonians (J1 Metro League Section B)
Wanderers (JP Fanagan Pennant)
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