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Best & Fairest competitions teams of the season

One of our regular post-season pieces is to compile teams based on the Men’s Billy Wallace and Women’s Erin Rush Best & Fairest standings, representing the outstanding and consistent performers across the many weeks of the club season.

With the winners – Men’s joint-winners Sam Clarke from Paremata-Plimmerton and Marist St Pats’ Milan Kriletich and Women’s winner Keira Su’a-Smith of Petone – having been announced at last Wednesday’s WRFU Awards, we’re now able to announce these.

Our selection criteria remain unchanged from previous editions. Players are selected on the basis of the points they accumulated and then placed into the position they primarily played during the year. Any ties are then broken by the number of times a player got three points, then by where their sides finished up.

So, to the teams themselves.

The only thing consistent about the Men’s Billy Wallace selection is the amount of turnover. Last year’s side had 12 first-time selections in the starting XV, and this year continues that with 11 first-timers in our run-on side and a further six on the bench. Just five of our 22 have made this team before.

Last year’s forward pack was completely first-timers, and that’s almost true again this year with only one returnee from previous years. Avalon and Wellington might have finished at the bottom of the standings but they supply our props with the Wolves Jacob Faifai at loosehead and the Axemen’s Antonio Prim at tighthead, the latter doing enough during his stint here to make this side. In between them is HOBM’s Harry Press, with the former HIBS star earning a place in the Lions squad on the back of his play this term. Joining them in the tight five is Tawa duo Akira Ieremia and Hugo Plummer; the former was way out in front amongst locks while Plummer’s performances in the few weeks since returning from Super Rugby garnered enough points to see him become the only returning face in the forwards.

Teru Time (green headgear) makes a tackle in the Hardham Cup final. Photo: Caroline Lewis.

Wainuiomata’s 200-game man Teru Time took home all three points from the Hardham Cup final and that was enough to see him pip Poneke’s Pasia Asaiata for the blindside place. He’s joined in the loose trio by MSP’s Kriletich on the open, and OBU’s indefatigable Dougal Perrers at No. 8.

Action during the Jubilee Cup Final premier rugby match between Tawa  v OBU, on 27 July 2024

Dougal Perrers and teammates celebrate their Jubilee Cup win. Photo: Stewart Baird.

There’s four first-timers in our backs. Clarke is one of those and partners Johnsonville’s Mark Sutton in the halves with the Hawk earning a third selection after being the starting halfback last year and our bench one in 2021. The midfield comprises Wainuiomata veteran Tyler Tane who earns his second selection on the back of a strong finish to the year and having previously made this team in 2020, with Ories’ Alex Ropeti getting the nod at centre. Petone’s Belgium Tuatagaloa’s mid-season purple patch gets him the left wing jersey, Johnsonville’s Finlay Sharp claims the right wing, and Pare-Plim’s Esi Komaisavai gets his third selection in this team but his first at fullback.

Johnsonville halfback Mark Sutton all concentration in the Hardham Cup semi-final loss to Paremata-Plimmerton. Photo: Stewart Baird.

Petone’s Belgium Tuatagaloa approaches the Ories defence when they met in the Swindale Shield in round seven. Photo: Andy McArthur.

Our bench has OBU captain Louis Calvert, Tawa’s Siale Lauaki, and HOBM’s Jordan Gillies earning their first places in our team. The dearth of locking options sees us go for another first-time in Asiata instead, comfortable that we could get 80 minutes out of two of Ieremia, Plummer, and Time, and to increase the tempo. The backs comprise OBU duo Kyle Preston and 2022 B&F winner and 2024 Jim Brown Medal winner Callum Harkin, and Upper Hutt’s Emmanuel Solomona.

Every club bar Norths is represented in our team. Jubilee Cup winners OBU have four players with runners-up Tawa having three.

In every case there’s the unlucky ones. Gillies finished well inside the Top 10 in the voting but mainly played openside which puts him on the bench behind Kriletich. Ories’ Peniali Poasa tied with Calvert but lost out on the tiebreaker, while both Poneke’s DJ Taoipu and Wellington’s Will Cosgriff each came up just shy in their positions. Johnsonville’s Jacob Walmsley outscored his teammate Sharp, but played more games at fullback and on the left wing than he did on the right.

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Our third Erin Rush Women’s side follows largely the same rules as the men, but this year owing to a paucity of points scorers in some positions – namely lock and the wings – we’ve had to be a bit more flexible.

This year’s side has no fewer than eleven players making the list for the first-time, headed by Su’a-Smith. Three players return from last year’s team with Avalon No. 8 Hosanna Aumua becoming the first and only three-time selection, joined by Petone’s irrepressible Lavinia Lea at prop and hooker Valini Vaka who was with MSP last year and across at the Poneke-OBU side this year. The fourth returning player is stalwart Jackie Patea-Fereti who was in our inaugural team in 2021.

For the third time, Avalon’s Hosanna Aumua makes the women’s Best & Fairest team at No. 8. Photo: Hugh Pretorius. 

The newcomers are a mix of young stars coming through and veterans getting some just recognition. Lea and Vaka are joined in the front-row by Pare-Plim’s Roimata Parata who made the transition from hooker to tighthead this season and earned a place in the Pride squad on the back of that switch, while lock is one spot we had to get creative; both Norths’ Sanita Levave and Ories’ Evelyn Tea played number 8 this year but the former is a longtime lock at all levels and we’re confident Tea could handle being in the middle row. Our loose trio has Aumua at the back, Patea-Fereti on the openside where she played for the champions this year, and Norths veteran Leah Conley on the blind.

Avalon’s Savannah Peniata is at halfback inside Su’a-Smith, with Norths Tiresa Tuangalu and Pare-Plim’s former Black Fern Shakira Baker in midfield. We also had to be flexible with our back three; Petone’s Litia Bulicakau is the fullback on merit as is teammate Bella Dickinson on the right wing, but we’ve opted to put Wainuiomata’s fullback Billie Va’a on the left wing.

Each of the seven teams has at least one representative, with champions Petone having five.

Captain Lavinia Lea holds the trophy aloft at the end of the women’s season – one of five Petone players in the Best & Fairest team of the season. Photo: Andy McArthur. 

The unlucky players from the voting were Pare-Plim hooker and captain Petra Ikenasio was pipped by Vaka after the latter was awarded the two points in the Izzy Ford Cup final, and Petone halfback Milly Mackey who came up a point shy of Peniata.

The teams, together with their clubs and totals in brackets are:

Men’s team:

  1. Jacob Faifai – Avalon (7)
  2. Harry Press – HOBM (11)
  3. Antonio Prim – Wellington (6)
  4. Hugo Plummer – Tawa (6)
  5. Akira Ieremia – Tawa (12)
  6. Teru Time – Wainuiomata (8)
  7. Milan Kriletich – MSP (19)
  8. Dougal Perrers – OBU (10)
  9. Mark Sutton – Johnsonville (15)
  10. Sam Clarke – Pare-Plim (19)
  11. Belgium Tuatagaloa – Petone (9)
  12. Tyler Tane – Wainuiomata (12)
  13. Alex Ropeti – Ories (9)
  14. Finlay Sharp – Johnsonville (6)
  15. Esi Komaisavai – Pare-Plim (13)
  16. Louis Calvert – OBU (10)
  17. Siale Lauaki – Tawa (5)
  18. Pasia Asiata – Poneke (7)
  19. Jordan Gillies – HOBM (12)
  20. Kyle Preston – OBU (8)
  21. Callum Harkin – OBU (13)
  22. Emmanual Solomona – Upper Hutt (9)

Women’s team:

  1. Lavinia Lea – Petone (11)
  2. Valini Vaka – Poneke-OBU (8)
  3. Roimata Parata – Pare-Plim (4)
  4. Sanita Levave – Norths (4)
  5. Evelyn Tea – Ories (6)
  6. Leah Conley – Norths (4)
  7. Jackie Patea-Fereti – Petone (6)
  8. Hosanna Aumua – Avalon (12)
  9. Savannah Peniata – Avalon (9)
  10. Keira Su’a-Smith – Petone (14)
  11. Billie Va’a – Wainuiomata (6)
  12. Tiresa Tuangalu – Norths (4)
  13. Shakira Baker – Pare-Plim (9)
  14. Bella Dickinson – Petone (4)
  15. Litia Bulicakau – Petone (6)

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