Connacht Rugby Player Development Award: Shane Jennings

Ballinasloe RFC and Clonfert College (formerly Garbally College) are the latest club and school to benefit from the Connacht Rugby Player Development Award. 

The fund was created to show recognition for the work being done at mini, youth and school level by the Connacht Rugby club and school network. Over €200k has been paid out to date to our Connacht Clubs and Schools. 

The initiative works by awarding the relevant Connacht Club and/or School on foot of the player having started 15 times for the Connacht Pro team. Ballinasloe RFC and Clonfert College received €10k this past week to celebrate clubman Shane Jennings achieving this goal. 

Already 10 Connacht Clubs and 8 Connacht Schools have benefited from this scheme in recognition of the great work done at Mini, Youth and School level in the province. The scheme itself is a Connacht Rugby initiative and Connacht are the only province in Ireland to have such a scheme.

The fund was initiated in 2019, however, at that time, a decision was also taken by the Connacht Rugby Board to pay out to our clubs and schools retrospectively for players they would have brought through their systems in the past, right back to the Johnny O’Connor/Gavin Duffy era.

This financial award system helps the Connacht clubs and schools to continue to grow the game at the grassroots level in their respective areas, with the hope that many more talented home-grown players will follow through into the Connacht Senior professional team.

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