Paremata-Plimmerton’s Sam Clarke, Marist St Pats’ Milan Kriletich, and Petone’s Keira Su’a-Smith took home the feature club awards from last night’s Wellington Rugby awards. Clarke and Kriletich were joint-winners of the mens Billy Wallace crown, while Su’a-Smith was the outright winner of the women’s Erin Rush Trophy.
Clarke and Kriletich each tallied 19 points across the season, allocated on the 3-2-1 basis by the match officials from the Wellington Rugby Referees Association. Both picked up the man of the match nod on four occasions with Clarke getting points in eight matches and Kriletich nine.
Johnsonville’s Mark Sutton was the leader at the midpoint of the Swindale Shield but his tally dropped off as the Hawks form faltered but still finished third, with fourth split between Clarke’s livewire Pare-Plim teammate Esi Komaisavai and Old Boys-University first-five and 2022 Best & Fairest winner Callum Harkin. Tawa’s Akira Ieremia was the leading tight forward, one point ahead of HOBM’s Harry Press.
Clarke becomes the first Pare-Plim player to win this award, while Kriletich is the first winner from MSP since hooker Lui Taituave in 2011 and joins a list of Fa’atonu Fili, Gordon Simpson, Paul Quinn, John Fleming, and two-time winners Zak Feaunati and Neil Sorensen.
The Billy Wallace award dates back to 1966, with flanker Tom Lister from the Athletic club the inaugural winner. Petone’s Stanley Solomon won the award last year, but age grade representative duties limited his involvement in the club season this year.
Su’a-Smith becomes the second consecutive Villager to claim the Women’s Erin Rush award, tallying 14 points across the competition to succeed Justine McGregor as the winner. She also continues a remarkable trend of teenaged players winning this since it was introduced in 2021, joining McGregor and Pare-Plim’s Kaia Pollock, with inaugural winner Thamsyn Newton (who repeated jointly with Pollock in 2022) the only one to win this while with an age starting with something other than a ‘1’.
Su’a-Smith picked up the Player of the Match in three of Petone’s 11 matches and in six in all to edge out teammate Lavinia Lea and Avalon’s Hosanna Aumua, with another Shewolf in Savannah Peniata and Pare-Plim’s Shakira Baker – who only played in five matches – rounding out the top-five scorers.
There were plenty of other community awards handed out on the night – we await the WRFU for releasing a list of these.
The last 15 winners of the Billy Wallace Best & Fairest competition have been:
- 2010: Mateaki Kafatolu (Petone)
- 2011: Liu Taituave (Marist St Pat’s)
- 2012: Sharn Eru (Wainuiomata) / Ardie Savea (Oriental-Rongotai)
- 2013: Sam Tui (Poneke)
- 2014: Ben Tupuola (Wainuiomata)
- 2015: TJ Fermanis (Tawa) / Adam Deck (Wellington)
- 2016: Peniasi Tokakece (Tawa)
- 2017: Ben Tupuola (Wainuiomata) / Hemi Fermanis (Tawa)
- 2018: Greg Foe (Poneke)’
- 2019: Kemara Hauiti-Parapara (Tawa)
- 2020: Sam Reid (OBU) and Bruce Kauika-Petersen (Norths)
- 2021: Kemara Hauiti-Parapara (Tawa)
- 2022: Callum Harkin (Old Boys University)
- 2023: Stanley Solomon (Petone)
- 2024: Sam Clarke (Paremata-Plimmerton) and Milan Kriletich (Marist St Pat’s)
The first four winners of the Erin Rush Cup have been:
- 2021: Thamsyn Newton (Paremata-Plimmerton)
- 2022: Thamsyn Newton (Marist St Pat’s) and Kaia Pollock (Paremata-Plimmerton) SHARED
- 2023: Justine McGregor (Petone)
- 2024: Keira Su’a-Smith (Petone)
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History of the Best & Fairest competition
In 2016 we did a series celebrating the Best & Fairest winners from its inception in 1966 up to the early 2000s.
View the start of this series at: http://www.clubrugby.co.nz/wellington/story.php?id=1791
Best and fairest, yet neither made the Jubilee cup even? Nothing against either but I don’t know….system is flawed.