Philips Sports Manager of the Year 2009 Philips Sports Manager of the Year 2009 The Philips Sports Manager of the Year Awards for 2009 were held on Wednesday, 9 December at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin. Declan Kidney won the award for the second consecutive year after guiding Ireland to their first Six Nations Championship since 1985, and their first Grand Slam since 1948, following up with an unbeaten autumn season against Australia, Argentina and Fiji. Kidney had won the monthly award twice during the year. Also honoured for their achievements in 2009 were Heineken Cup-winning coach with Leinster Rugby Michael Cheika, League of Ireland-winning manager Pat Fenlon,
Grand Slam (rugby union) are awarded the Six Nations trophy (as tournament winners), but there is no special grand slam trophy – the Grand Slam is an informal honour recognizing a Championship-winning team which has won all their games. Although the term "grand slam" had long been in use in the game of contract bridge, the first time that the expression is known to have been applied to rugby union was in 1957, in a preview of a match between England and Scotland: The Grand Slam honour is applied retroactively to teams which won all of their matches in Five Nations tournaments before the