PRO12 Awards For Penney & Hanrahan

The RaboDirect PRO12 Awards took place tonight at a ceremony which saw the stars of this season’s league campaign gather in Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre.

In attendance for Munster Rugby were Head Coach Rob Penney, squad captain Peter O’Mahony and PRO12 Ambassador Dave Kilcoyne. Each season every team nominates a player as Ambassador with Kilcoyne also earning the honour of inclusion in this season’s PRO12 Dream Team along with Casey Laulala.

Munster’s first award on the night went to JJ Hanrahan as he picked up this season’s Golden Boot. The Golden Boot is awarded to the kicker who has successfully converted the highest percentage of place kicks during the 22 week regular season. The minimum criteria are 20 attempts at goal and an 88.71% success rate saw Hanrahan see off his closest rivals Gareth Davies of Cardiff Blues and Dan Biggar of Ospresys who finished on 86.96% and 84.71% respectively. Peter O’Mahony accepted the award on behalf of the Munster playmaker who was also last week named Young Player of the Year at the Munster Rugby Awards.

Munster’s successes continued with Head Coach Rob Penney named Coach of the Season. As the New Zealander enters his final period of competitive action with the province, Penney can look back at a final league campaign which saw Munster go on a nine game winning streak, lose only two games at home and achieve knock out qualification.

On accepting the award Penney said;

"it's a wonderful accolade, very humbling and a bit embarrassing to be fair"

As the ceremony drew to a close a PRO12 Dream Team highlight reel recognised the excellent league form of both Dave Kilcoyne and Casey Laulala.
See the full list of winners below:

Fair Play Award – Ulster Rugby & Connacht Rugby (shared)
Golden Boot Award – JJ Hanrahan (Munster Rugby)
Collision Kings Award – Connacht Rugby
Try of the Season – Tommy Seymore (Glasgow Warriors)
Coach of the Year – Rob Penney (Munster Rugby)
Young Player of the Year – Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors)
Chairman's Award – Brian O’ Driscoll & Leo Cullen (Leinster Rugby)
Players' Player of the Year – Dan Biggar (Ospreys)

Munster travel to Scotstoun Stadium on Friday night to face Glasgow Warriors in the semi-final of the RaboDirect PRO12, KO 7:35. To purchase tickets online please click here.