CJ Stander and Sarah Quin take top Munster Rugby Awards

Shane Daly and Jack O’Sullivan also received awards as the province honoured former CEO Garrett Fitzgerald with a posthumous induction into Munster’s Hall of Fame

Munster Rugby Awards: Winners CJ Stander and Sarah Quin

CJ Stander, Sarah Quin, Shane Daly, and Jack O’Sullivan were the big winners as the 2020 Munster Rugby Awards were announced as the province also paid tribute to the late Garrett Fitzgerald.

Former long-serving chief executive Fitzgerald, who died earlier this year, was inducted posthumously to Munster's Hall of Fame.

It was a good day for back-rowers, picking up three of the four individual awards in the absence of a ceremony due to Covid-19 restrictions.

No.8 Stander scooped the Men’s Player of the Year award for the third time in six years, UL Bohemian and Munster back-row Quin was Women’s Player of the Year, while O’Sullivan was honoured with the John McCarthy Award For Greencore Munster Academy Player of the Year.

Daly, meanwhile, was named Young Player of the Year at the start of a month in which he will be hopeful of earning his Ireland Test debut during the Autumn Nations Cup.

All 11 winners of the 2020 Munster Rugby Awards in categories ranging across the professional and domestic game were announced on Monday at the end of a difficult year disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. With domestic rugby’s 2019-20 season ended with immediate effect in March as the country went into lockdown, the awards reflected what might have been in terms of trophy winners.

Cork Constitution picked up the Senior Club of the Year award having won all 14 of their All-Ireland League Division 1A games to establish a 13-point lead at the top of the table and were unbeaten in all 19 of their competitive fixtures, having landed the Munster Senior Challenge Cup and Cork Charity Cup prior to lockdown.

The final award of the afternoon marked a poignant end to proceedings with the posthumous induction into Munster’s Hall of Fame of Fitzgerald, the province’s chief executive from 1999 until his retirement in 2019. He died after a long illness in February.

MUNSTER RUGBY AWARDS 2020 

Hall of Fame – Garrett Fitzgerald 

Men’s Player of the Year – CJ Stander 

Women’s Player of the Year – Sarah Quin 

Young Player of the Year – Shane Daly 

Academy Player of the Year – Jack O’Sullivan 

Referee of the Year – Eoghan Cross 

Senior Club of the Year – Cork Constitution FC 

Junior Club of the Year – Kilfeacle & District RFC 

School of the Year – Christian Brothers College, Cork 

Club Youth Section of the Year – Killarney RFC 

Club Mini Section of the Year – Clonakilty RFC