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 RFTG Reporter Lucy Smith waved the flag at the PRA Awards this year.
The great and the good of the rugby world were in London for the PRA awards. The event was held in the Grosvenor House Hotel and was in support of the PRA Benevolent Fund. The evening started with a champagne reception in the ballroom before being ushered into the Great Room where the main action was taking place. Our host with the most was Martin Bayfield who kept the evening ticking over with some amusing stories about some of the former players (especially Jason Leonard). It take some time for people to be seated as they were too busy sampling the free champagne.
The first award of the evening was for the try of the season. The tries were put forward by the Sunday Times rugby writers. This was unique as the winning try was voted for by the guests at the event using electronic keypads. The 4 tries which were nominated were Nick Abendanon for Bath against Worcester; David Lemi for Bristol against Bath; Tane Tu’ipulotu for Newcastle against Leicester and Joe Simpson for Wasps against Harlequins. The award (after an X Factor style pause) went to David Lemi. It was quite funny seeing Martin Bayfield, all 6’8” of him, interviewing Lemi who is about 5’8” (ish). 
The second award was for the O2 Special Merit award. This award recognises an outstanding contribution to the game. This award went to the evergreen Mike Catt (right), who was a popular winner by the length of the standing ovation he received.
The Blyth Spirit Award was the next award up. This award is given to a person who has shown remarkable courage in the face of adversity. The award was named after the first recipient, Andy Blyth. However, this year there was a change as the award went to a charity, Help4Heroes. This was in recognition of the fact that Help4Heroes has raised millions of pounds in under 2 years to make a difference to the wounded service men and women.
There was then a break for the Grand Auction which was hosted by Jonny Gould. The lots included the ultimate sport season ticket which covers cricket, football and golf; the Grand Slam decade which has signed shirts from all the grand slam winning sides since 2000; England season tickets which covers the 3 autumn Internationals at Twickenham and the 2 home internationals for 2010 6 Nations; a signed shirt from the Lions legends; an opportunity for someone to train with the England team (which Austin Healy was bidding on)
The second half of the awards presentation started off with the young player of the year award. This is also known as the Nick Duncombe Memorial Trophy which was named after the Harlequins and England scrum-half died suddenly in 2003 from a rare form of blood poisoning. There were 5 nominees: Steffon Armitage, Danny Care, Tom Croft, Ben Foden and Jordan Turner-Hall. In 3rd place was Danny Care, in 2nd was Tom Croft and the winner of the award was Ben Foden.
The penultimate award was the HSBC Hall of Fame Inductions. The pre-requisite for this award was that the players must have been retired from international rugby for a minimum of three years. This year there were 2 inductees into the Hall of Fame: Fran Cotton and Jerry Guscott
The last award of the evening was the Computacenter Player’s Player of the Year. This award as the name recognises the outstanding player of the domestic season as voted for by his fellow PRA members. There were 5 nominations: Delon Armitage, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Ben Foden, Seilala Mapusua and Tom May. In 3rd place was Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe; in 2nd place was Tom May and the winner was Seilala Mapusua from London Irish.
After the last award was presented, it was back into the ballroom for the after show party. There was a good mix of the players and the paying public throwing some shapes of which the Rugby For the Girls crowd would have been proud.
It was an amazing evening to be rubbing shoulders with some of the rugby elite such as Martin Corry, RFTG fav James Haskell, Danny Cipriaini, Austin Healy. I’ll admit that I was starstruck to be around the legends of the game. All in all it was a fabulous night and extremely good fun and roll on next year!! 
BEN FODEN - NORTHAMPTON SAINTS Young Player of the Year 2009 click through for Ben in action! |
