David Wallace To Join IRUPA Hall Of Fame

6th May 2015 By Munster Rugby

On Wednesday May 13th, at the Hibernia College IRUPA Rugby Players’ Awards, former Munster and Ireland flanker David Wallace will become the 15th player to be inducted into the BNY Mellon IRUPA Hall of Fame.

David will join other greats such as Denis Hickie, John Hayes, Malcom O’Kelly, Anthony Foley, David Humphreys and Keith Wood. For the first time, the 2015 Hall of Fame recipient was voted for by the past player members of the IRUPA Clubhouse from a shortlist generated by the IRUPA Executive Board.

With over 200 caps for Munster and 72 Irish appearances, David Wallace has made a huge contribution to rugby throughout his 15 year career. Born in Limerick and educated at Crescent Collage, he made his Munster debut against Connacht in August 1997. His European debut came a year later and he played in all nine Munster games in the run to the 2000 Heineken Cup Final, scoring the only try of the game in Munster’s narrow defeat to Northampton. 2002 brought another final and another runner-up medal before Munster's and Wallace's first Heineken Cup Final victory in 2006. He tasted Heineken Cup success again in 2008 when Munster beat Toulouse 16–13 in the 2008 Heineken Cup Final. He became the sixth player to reach 200 caps for Munster against Leinster during the 2011 Magners League Grand Final, a game in which he won the Man of the Match award.

He won his first senior Ireland cap against Argentina in June 2000. Injury hampered his early international career but his return from injury was marked with a try and victory over Scotland in 2004 to help secure Ireland’s Triple Crown victory. A member of the squad for the 2006 Six Nations and the Summer Tour, he recorded another international try for Ireland in their 43–13 demolition of England in the 2007 Six Nations Championship. He was selected for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France where he started all four of Ireland's pool games.

His international career continued apace as part of the Irish Grand Slam winning side in 2009 and he played in all five of Ireland’s 2010 Six Nations Championship and was awarded Man of the Match against Italy. He continued this form in the 2010 Autumn Series, playing against South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina, becoming Ireland’s most capped back rower. Wallace played in all five of Ireland's 2011 Six Nations Championship games and was selected in Ireland's final 30-man squad for the 2011 World Cup, however a knee injury sustained during Ireland's final warm-up game against England ruled him out of the tournament and ultimately brought down the curtain on his international career.

A British and Irish Lion, David toured Australia with the 2001 squad, playing against NSW Country Districts and scored a try against ACT Brumbies. On April 21^st 2009, Wallace was named in the British and Irish Lions squad for the tour to South Africa. He started the first and second tests and came on as a substitute for the third.

On hearing of his induction David said: “It is a great honour to be inducted into the BNY Mellon IRUPA Hall of Fame, it’s a great honour to sit alongside some of Ireland’s greatest rugby players”.

Omar Hassanein, CEO, IRUPA, commented, “David Wallace has always been an outstanding contributor to Irish rugby both on and off the field and thus a very worthy inductee into the BNY Mellon IRUPA Hall of Fame. He well and truly deserves to be sitting on this honour roll amongst other such distinguished names.”

Meanwhile Munster's Paul O'Connell and Conor Murray have been nominated for the IRUPA Hibernia College Player's Player of the Year Award, Felix Jones is in contention for the IRUPA Hibernia College Medal for Excellence, while Denis Hurley is in the running for the IRUPA '3' Unsung Hero Award.

You can vote for Denis by tweeting 'Denis Hurley' to @ThreeIrlRugby and using the hashtag #3UnsungHero.

The Hibernia College IRUPA Rugby Players Awards take place at Dublin’s Double Tree by Hilton Hotel on Wednesday May 13th 2015.