By Chris Wearmouth 
Rory Jennings has led the way with two Coventry Rugby End of Season Awards.
At the end of a season which saw Coventry Rugby rise from eight to fourth in the Greene King IPA Championship, reach the Championship Cup quarter finals for a second successive season and improve both scoring and defensive records, the range of recipients reflected the number of players and team performances shown throughout the campaign.
Top scorer Jennings was the only player to win multiple prizes, namely the Players’ Player and Coaches’ Player (backs) Awards. Adam Peters was the Coaches Player (forwards), with Ryan Burrows and James Martin winning their Supporters Player of the Season and Try of the Season Awards being voted on by the public in May.
Sam McNulty won the Jim Ashby Award as Young Player of the Year for the progression he has shown as a player over the last 12 months, switching from back row to hooker last summer before playing in National Three, National Two, National One and making his first team debut before Christmas.
The final individual award in the playing squad goes to Dan Lewis, who is the Performer of the Year. This award recognises both performances on the pitch as well as the positive attitude, leadership, community work and all-round exemplification of the culture which the club is developing behind the scenes at Butts Park Arena.
Special recognition deserves to be paid to Scott Tolmie for both hitting the 100-appearance mark, to Tolmie and Max Trimble as joint top try scorers, Jo Hill as the Clubperson of the Year.
Director of Rugby Rowland Winter congratulated all the winners.
“We’ve had a strong year in which we made improvements in every area, and while we’re by no means the finished article there is a lot we can be proud of at the end of the season,” he said.
“Everyone contributed towards this, whether on a Saturday or during the week in our meetings and training, and there were long discussions about who should win the awards with plenty of players in consideration.
“Massive congratulations to all of them, and on behalf of all of the coaches and management I’d like to thank the players and staff for their effort, the commercial side of the club for the way they have taken that area forwards, and for the supporters and partners for all their backing over the last 12 months.”
The Awards will be physically handed out at a special ceremony later in the year, once the club can open with social distancing and government guidelines.
We’ll be catching up with the winners next week and bringing supporters up-to-date with squad news.
