It was a very successful night for the club last night at the annual Auckland Rugby awards evening held at Eden Park.

Club Chairman Robert Neil was awarded the Barrie Connell Memorial Trophy for the volunteer club administrator of the year. Rob is the leader of PURC and holds many roles within our Club. He is first and foremost the PURC Board Chairman, a position he has held for the last four years whilst being on the Board for 9 years, He is in charge of the PURC building redevelopment plan which has kept our facilities in excellent condition, He was coach of the U13 Capped Kiwis, a team he has coached from U5’s to U13’s. Many of these boys can’t afford to play rugby and Rob personally ensures there fees are paid and they are turned out in full club uniform each week. He was a grade coordinator of the U13 grade and also sits on the junior rugby committee, He was on our 2013 Cherrybrook (Australia tour) committee that toured and helped raise $24,000 in extra fundraising that was donated back to the club for building refurbishment projects.

Rob has been a major part of the driving force behind the resurgence of Pakuranga United Rugby Club both on and off the field. He was the coordinator of the $1,500,000 clubhouse upgrade and was not afraid to lead a Board that took on debt to ensure the project was finished. He is now ensuring that our debt position is under control and paid off in less than 5 years which is a major achievement in today’s club environment. Rob this year also has been in charge of a $250,000 redevelopment of our Gymnasium putting in many hours to ensure the project’s success.

Rob has been a part of the resurgence process in the senior grades over the last 6 years. He helped identify the need for quality coaching of players and helped action the plan which has seen major improvements in our play across all grades.

His real passion is in our junior club where he has been involved on the committee for the last 10+ years as his boys went through the grades. He helped set in place our junior development plan which at its height had 850+ children playing rugby at the club. In a club of mainly smaller children Rob has been the main driving force behind capped grade rugby. I am sure without his constant pushing of these grades we would highly likely not have teams in these grades.

Rob is a major sponsor of the club and also the first to help if we someone to put out the post pads or get a child to a game. Is there anything he can’t do?

Well done Rob, the award is recognition of all the hard work you do!

Up next Premier assistant coach Jason “Fritter” Mclean was shocked in winning the most promising coach award. In 2015 Jason took the major step of coming into our premier programme as an assistant coach having previously coached our premier reserves and U21 sides at the club. Such was his dedication to the role our team transitioned into a contender for Alan McEvoy honours even after 13 new players were brought into the squad (mainly from our reserve and U21 side). Jason is keen to learn and takes every opportunity to improve on his abilities having achieved his level 3 coaching certificate in 2015 . He was the head coach of the U18 divisional side and took this team to several very good results against highly regarded opposition. Jason also coaches our 7’s side at PURC and recently has been named Auckland U18 7’s coach for 2015. Not bad for a player who to his own admission was only a fairly average prop! Well done Fritter!

We then moved into the ITM cup awards with our very own Joseph Edwards being awarded the defender of the year trophy. If you watched the ITM final you would agree this award was truly warranted after the tackle he made covering the Canterbury winger who looked sure to score.  Jo was quick to add after the awards that he was also “not that bad” in attack either! awesome work Jo, we look forward to seeing a lot more of you in the Blues in 2016!

Finally Brian Wilsher took out the major award of the evening the Ash Edwards Memorial Trophy for contribution to Auckland Rugby.

Brian’s involvement in 2015 has been as Chairman of the Council of Delegates for the ARU. As part of this role he has sits on the Board of the ARU and latterly the Blues. This is Brian’s final year on the COD after many years of service and it is fitting that this award has honoured a stellar career in local rugby administration.  Like our club the ARU has had the advantage of Brian’s experience in business and his ability to make sound strategic decisions. 

Brian has been involved with PURC for a very long time (22 years). His first 10 years were spent on the junior and intermediate committees as well as managing our junior teams. He moved into the senior club spending the last 13 years on our Board with 12 of these years as our COD delegate (the last 2 as Chairman). Whilst on the COD he spent 3 years as Chairman on the Referees Committee and 5 years as Chairman of the Technical Committee. During this time he also sat on our Senior Rugby Committee and Board whilst finding time to be our ground announcer on Saturdays.

Many players, Parents, Supporters and Fans have benefitted from his skills in administration on behalf of everyone at PURC congratulations Brain, don’t rest mate, it’s time for you to sort out the Blues now!