Bundee Aki and Nichola Fryday recognised at Rugby Writers Awards

TOP FORM: Ireland and Connacht Centre Bundee Aki, who today has been named Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Men’s Player of The Year acknowledging a consistent 2022/2023 season for both club and country. Pic: James Crombie, Inpho

Nichola Fryday and Bundee Aki’s stellar performances in 2023 were recognised at the Guinness Rugby Writers Ireland awards in Dublin as they were crowned XVs players of the year.

Aki’s men’s player of the year award came after some outstanding displays for his country as the national side completed a Guinness Six Nations Grand Slam and was one of the marquee players at the World Cup in France, scoring five tries as he started all five of Ireland’s matches and earned a nomination for World Rugby’s Player of the Year award.

“It is an honour to have been voted the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Men’s Player of the Year,” Aki said. “All of my team-mates at Connacht and Ireland are deserving of recognition for their commitment and contribution to the game and I would not be picking up this award without their support.” 

The Connacht centre, his province’s first recipient of the award since Eric Elwood in 1992-93, scored his fifth try of the tournament after a pair apiece against Romania and Tonga in Ireland’s narrow quarter-final defeat to New Zealand. 

While that represented a disappointing end to the campaign, Ireland’s body of work over 12 months, winning the Grand Slam and extending their run of victories to a team-record 17 consecutive Tests before that 28-24 Paris defeat to the All Blacks, earned Andy Farrell’s men the Dave Guiney Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Team of the Year award.

Fryday’s women’s player of the year award comes at the end of a year in which the Exeter Chiefs lock retired from international rugby, bowing out as Ireland captain last July following a difficult Six Nations campaign in which she was one the team’s standout performers.

WRAPPED UP IN STYLE: Former Ireland Women’s Captain, Nichola Fryday, who was awarded the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Women’s XV’s Player of The Year. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho

“It is a huge privilege,” Fryday said. “It has been a bittersweet season but a journey I am grateful to have been part of for the last seven years. I feel very proud to have captained a very special group of players with Ireland who epitomised resilience, dedication and commitment to the jersey. 

"I would also like to thank the many people throughout my International career who supported me and made the journey a memorable one.” 

Harry McNulty and Lucy Mulhall’s contributions to Ireland’s Olympic Sevens qualifying effort for this summer’s Games in Paris were recognised at the Guinness Storehouse last night as they picked up their respective Sevens Player of the Year Awards.

Also honoured at the event was Clontarf and Leinster academy back rower Alex Soroka, the Ukrainian-born forward whose fundraising efforts for the war-torn country were recognised by Rugby Writers Ireland’s Tom Rooney Award. 

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Soroka and his family set up a GoFundMe page for the children’s hospital in Kyiv where he and his brother Ivan were born. Set up with a target of raising €5,000, the page has currently raised more than €64,000.

Incoming IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys kicked off the year in which he will succeed David Nucifora in the role by becoming one of Rugby Writers Ireland’s latest inductees to its Hall Of Fame. 

The former Heineken Cup-winning Ulster and Ireland fly-half was inducted alongside former Ireland women’s 2013 Grand Slam winner Lynne Cantwell.

Tyrone’s Clogher Valley RFC was voted Club of the Year after earning promotion to Division 2C of the Men's All Ireland League last season and competing as a senior club this season for the first time in its history.