Pooler celebrate 24/25 season

Players, coaches, management, sponsors, volunteers, Vice Presidents, Patrons, family members and a small number of invited guests were in attendance as we celebrated the successes of our first season in Super Rygbi Cymru.

Peter Jeffreys kicked off the evening by welcoming everyone to The Parkway Hotel and Spa, who once again hosted us incredibly well. We’d like to offer thanks to Kerry, Kirsty & Kath Jennings and all of their staff at the hotel for looking after us so well, as they always do.

Nigel Meek then took over MC duties for the evening and, as usual, kept the room entertained. The awards commenced with Tom Hancock presenting Mike Herbert with this years Captain’s Trophy with Tom remaining on stage to present Kieran Meek with an award for scoring the most amount (247) of points this season. Co-Team Manager, Rhys Dyer, then presented Scott Matthews with his award for scoring the most (11) tries which was then followed by Darren Samuel presenting Morgan Allen, with the Supporters Player award, having won your popular vote.

After main course the awards continued and the loudest applause of the evening took place when Co-Team Manager Ryan Thomas made his way to the stage to present the Players Player award with the recipient being Mike Herbert. Peter Jeffreys then presented his M5 Associates Man of the Season award which went to Marcus Jones. Gareth Betts then presented Young Player award to Sam Scarfe who, even though it feels as though he’s been around forever, still qualifies for this U23 award and will do for the next 2 years!!!

Special awards were then presented - This year the players wanted to start a new tradition which will see all current/future squad & management awarded a tie after making 20 appearances. As such Tom Hancock, Gareth Betts, Ryan Thomas, Scott Matthews, Sam Scarfe, Adam Stratton, Walker Price, Ieuan Jones, Callum Davies, Kyan Best, Sam Cochrane, Amosa Nove, Morgan Allen, Jordan Thomas, Mike Herbert, Matthew Powell, Owain Leonard, Joel Mahoney, Kieran Meek, Marcus Jones, Pat Lewis & Dan Hill all received their ties on stage.

Following on from the tie presentations it was great to welcome our own Terry Cobner to the stage who presented Sam Scarfe with a framed jersey to mark him passing half a century of game for the club. Unfortunately Kelvyn Williams was unable to attend the dinner so his jersey presentation will take place another time. Terry then continued to present caps, another new tradition the players had requested we commence, to Kieran Meek, Scott Matthews, Mike Herbert, Pat Lewis & Joel Mahoney, all of whom moved past 100 appearances for Pooler throughout this season. To finish off this section of evening Terry then presented Kieran with his Barbarians RFC jersey, a proud honour bestowed on him a few weeks back.

The awards were concluded after a break when the final two trophies were handed out. Terry presented this years Player of the Season award to Dan Hill, who’s continually shown all of the values demanded of Pooler players throughout this season.

The Chairman’s Award was then presented by Gill Calder-Matthews to a thoroughly outstanding candidate in Ray Ruddick.

Ray has been one of our most dedicated and committed volunteers who’s served the club with distinction for decades. His sterling work for the club really does extend way beyond the boundaries of his official title.

Above all, the values this gentleman displays sums up everything Pontypool RFC is about. No nonsense hard work with a can do attitude.

We’d like to congratulate all of the award winners along with all of the squad and coaching staff. There were some outstanding candidates this year so selecting the recipient was an extremely difficult task.