Image Caption: Winners at the Ulster Branch Women’s Rugby Awards are (back row L-R) Rosie Quinn, Julie Newton, Catrin Watts, Stephie Clarke
\n(both Queen’s); (front row L-R) Ashleigh Baxter, Joy Sparkes and Erin Caughey.<\/p>\n
The IRFU Ulster Branch Women’s Rugby Awards took place at Malone RFC on Monday night, with the two big awards of the night taken home by
\nIreland players Stacey-lea Kennedy (Ulster Inter-Provincial Player of the Year) and Ashleigh Baxter (All Ireland League Player of the Year).<\/p>\n
A special ‘Services to Rugby’ award was presented to Joy Sparkes, who did much to develop the women’s game in Ulster as an IRFU employee. She
\nhas recently taken up a post within community rugby in Ulster after ten years as Women’s Development Officer.<\/p>\n
The other individual award winners were Julie Newton (Qualifying Player of the Year), Rosie Quinn (Development Player of the Year) and
\nErin Caughey (Youth Player of the Year).<\/p>\n
Queen’s University won ‘Team of the Year’ after finishing top of All Ireland Division 2 North and adding the Ulster Cup and Carrick 10s
\ntrophies.<\/p>\n
IRFU ULSTER BRANCH WOMEN\u2019S RUGBY AWARD WINNERS:<\/p>\n
FRONT ROW UNION TEAM OF THE YEAR – QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<\/strong><\/p>\n Rapid progress at Queen’s has seen the squad go from the Development League last season to contenders for promotion to All Ireland Division 1 FRONT ROW UNION ULSTER INTERPROVINCIAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – STACEY-LEA The City of Derry and Ulster Women’s Captain led by example this season in her typically enthusiastic manner. The prop built on a KE NAKO BILTONG AIL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – ASHLEIGH BAXTER<\/strong><\/p>\n Belfast Harlequins, Ulster Women and Ireland Women’s Grand Slam winning team member. Currently a key member of the Ireland Women’s 7s FRONT ROW UNION QUALIFYING PLAYER OF THE YEAR – JULIE NEWTON<\/strong><\/p>\n The successful season enjoyed by Ballymoney was in no small part down to the contribution of Nelson. The number 8 played a key role and her FRONT ROW UNION DEVELOPMENT PLAYER OF THE YEAR – ROSIE QUINN<\/strong><\/p>\n The Newry player started playing in late 2011 as a second row but has now found her home at scrumhalf after a spell in the back row. She is REJENERATE SPORTS MASSAGE YOUTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR – ERIN CAUGHEY<\/strong><\/p>\n Malone player and Girls Schools’ Cup finalist with Grosvenor Grammar this year. Erin was a key member in the Eastern Regional Development SERVICES TO RUGBY AWARD – JOY SPARKES<\/strong><\/p>\n The face of Women’s rugby in Ulster for the last 10 years in her role as Women’s Development Officer, Joy has moved into a Community Rugby Joy worked tirelessly to promote and develop women’s rugby in Ulster and aided the development of many of the players who have achieved Image Caption: Winners at the Ulster Branch Women’s Rugby Awards are (back row L-R) Rosie Quinn, Julie Newton, Catrin Watts, Stephie Clarke (both Queen’s); (front row L-R) Ashleigh Baxter, Joy Sparkes and Erin Caughey. The IRFU Ulster Branch Women’s Rugby Awards took place at Malone RFC on Monday night, with the two big awards of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5327,3959,1997,5957],"class_list":["post-48856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ulster-rugby","tag-awards","tag-rugby","tag-ulster","tag-womens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48858,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48856\/revisions\/48858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nduring this campaign. They went through the regular season unbeaten to finish as winners of Division 2 North, but missed out on promotion after
\na narrow defeat to Division 2 South champs, Portlaise. They added the Ulster Cup and Carrick 10s titles to complete a remarkable season.<\/p>\n
\nKENNEDY<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nbrilliant inter-pro campaign by helping Ireland win an historic RBS Six Nations Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
\nsquad who are working towards qualification for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero.<\/p>\n
\nimpressive try tally underlined her importance to the team.<\/p>\n
\nonly new to rugby after coming from a GAA background. With hard work and determination she is one to watch in the upcoming years.<\/p>\n
\nSquad where she played comfortably in the number 10 shirt. She is a rising star for the future.<\/p>\n
\nOfficer role with responsibility for the North East of the Province. Her knowledge and enthusiasm will be refocused but thankfully for all
\ninvolved in Women’s Rugby not lost for good.<\/p>\n
\nsuccess with Ulster and Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"