Another great joins the pantheon… of greats.
Former Munster, Ireland and Lions flanker David Wallace has been inducted into the IRUPA Hall of Fame.
On May 13, Wallace will join other greats such as Denis Hickie, John Hayes, Malcolm O’Kelly, Anthony Foley, David Humphreys and Keith Wood when he is officially conferred. As a sign of the respect and regard Wallace is held in by Irish pros, he is the first player ever to be voted in by the past players.
Wallace made his Munster debut in 1997 and, between province and country, made more than 270 appearances. He appeared in two losing Heineken Cup finals before claiming the coveted trophy in 2006 and 2008.
He played 72 Tests for Ireland, was a Grand Slam winner in 2009 and toured with the Lions in 2001 and 2009.
He sustained a serious knee injury in 2011, which ruled him out of that year’s World Cup. He returned at the end of 2011/12 but retired by season’s end.
Wallace comments, ‘It is a great honour to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, it’s a great honour to sit alongside some of Ireland’s greatest rugby players.’
Omar Hassanein, chief executive of IRUPA, commented, ‘David Wallace has always been an outstanding contributor to Irish rugby both on and off the field and thus a very worthy inductee into the BNY Mellon IRUPA Hall of Fame. He well and truly deserves to be sitting on this honour roll amongst other such distinguished names.’
IRUPA Hall of Fame
- Peter Clohessy (2003)
- Mick Galwey (2003)
- Paddy Johns (2004)
- Keith Wood (2004)
- Eric Elwood (2005)
- Jeremy Davidson (2006)
- Victor Costello (2007)
- David Humphreys (2008)
- Anthony Foley (2009)
- Girvan Dempsey (2010)
- Malcolm O’Kelly (2011)
- John Hayes (2012)
- Denis Hickie (2013)
- Simon Best (2014)
- David Wallace (2015)
