Best & Fairest Teams of the Season 2025

• By Scott MacLean

A regular of our end of season coverage is to name teams based on the Men’s Billy Wallace and Women’s Erin Rush Best & Fairest standings, which represent the outstanding and consistent performers across the club season.

Last week the WRFU announced the two winners – Men’s winner Esi Komaisavai from Paremata-Plimmerton and Women’s winner Harmony Kautai from Petone – at their annual awards night. With that now public, we can now name these teams

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.

Once again, the only consistency about our Billy Wallace Men’s side is the amount of turnover year-on-year. There’s eight first-timers in our starting side and five more on the bench, with just one player from last year’s 22 – Komaisavai – returning in 2025.

There’s three returnees in our pack. The Upper Hutt Rams’ Senio Sanele made this side as a rookie in 2023 and reclaims the loosehead jersey this year. Alongside him is his clubmate, capped-Lion, and first-timer Leon Tuiloma at hooker, while the front-row is filled out by a club centurion but first-time selection here in MSP’s Tui Tuiatua.

Senio Sanele, back in the Best & Fairest team’s front row.

It’s youth and experience in our second row as well. MSP’s Preston Moananu headed all rookies and tight forwards, and packing down alongside him is Tawa veteran Hemi Fermanis. The latter becomes the third player to be selected five times since we started naming this team in 2013, joining HOBM duo James O’Reilly and Brandyn Laursen, but the first to be a starter in each of those years.

Preston Moananu, a consistent performer for MSP.

Our loose trio comprises two more first-timers on the flanks in the form of Tawa’s George Risale and Petone’s David Pocock-clone Braith Ingram, the overall runner-up. At No. 8 is Ories’ Dominic Ropeti who made this side in 2023 in the blindside.

As mentioned above Komaisavai is the only player returning from last year but even he is in a different spot as this year’s halfback was at fullback in 2024; he previously was our starting number nine in 2018 when he was at Norths. Outside him is Wainuiomata’s Andrew Wells who earns his second selection and first at first-five; he was previously our fullback in 2017 when with MSP.

Andrew Wells – back in the Billy Wallace team.

The midfield is both first-timers. Johnsonville’s Olly Paotonu has been an underrated performer at Premier-level for several years, while he’s joined by young Rams star Ieti Campbell in his first full season at centre.

The back three has our final first-time starter in Poneke’s Ifeanyi Nnbechukwu on the left wing after he blazed home in the final weeks. On the right Jacob Walmsley earns his third selection but it’s the Hawks flyer’s first start, while at fullback is Ories’ Tom Maiava who made this team at centre in 2020 when with Tawa.

Ifeanyi Nnbechukwu on the left wing in this paper team.

The two players returning from previous years on our bench are Poneke hooker Andrew Jones and Johnsonville lock Anthony Pettett, both starters in our 2023 lineup. HOBM’s Jubilee Cup-winning captain Waylon Tuhoro-Robinson and Poneke’s Carlos Hihi are first-timers forming our bench halves duo, with Norths supplying the remaining three players and all three also first-timers; prop Bradley Crichton, flanker Olana Afutoto, and waterbug outside fullback Zion Fuiava.

There were three points of interest in this year’s voting. One was the absence once again of hookers and No. 8s high up the standings, and the second was the preponderance of locks. While Moananu was the leader there, we had to go all the way into our tiebreakers to separate Fermanis, Pettett, OBU’s rookie Johnny Falloon, and HOBM’s Teofilo Paulo with Wellington’s Ami Paongo and Poneke’s Maea Temu-Schmidt in the mix as well. The third was the extent to which some teams (Pare-Plim, Petone, Upper Hutt) had one player well ahead in the count, while others – notably Jubilee Cup finalists HOBM and Tawa – had theirs spread around.

Falloon and Paulo headline those unlucky to miss out, along with HOBM’s Jordan Gillies and OBU’s Geordie Bean.

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The rules for the fourth edition of our Erin Rush Women’s side are largely the same as the men’s, but we’ve had to be flexible in a couple of places.

The mix between first-timers and returnees is pretty even. There’s eight newcomers, headed by Kautai and runner-up Zoe Clark from Wainuiomata. There’s a trio of players back from last year’s XV, with the remaining four having made the 2023 side but not last year’s. One of those is Ayesha Leti-l’iga, who despite limited action at club level joins Hosanna Aumua as the only players to make this list three times.

Zoe Clark – this year’s runner-up in the Erin Rush standings, behind winner Harmony Kautai.

Clark is joined in the front row by first-timer Pare-Plim’s Petra Ikenasio, who narrowly missed out last year, and the simply irrepressible Dora Laupola with the Norths star one of those returning from the 2023 side. The two locking places to complete the tight five comprises another Norths player – 200+ gamer and returnee Sanita Levave – alongside debutant Liza De Wild who is the only player from MSP to make this side.

The northern city also supplies our loose forward trio. Norths’ Nina Foaese returns from the 2023 side to take the blindside jersey with first-time duo Alex Delves and Mele Kupa-Cummings from Pare-Plim on the openside and at the back respectively.

The sole player from Avalon is this side is at halfback in the form of Savannah Peniata who returns from last year, with North’s Arene Landon-Lane back in the side after missing last year at first-five. It’s power and guile in our midfield; Alumeci Nawaqatabu is Pare-Plim’s fourth first-timer at second-five, with the versatile Litia Bulicakau at centre having been at fullback in last year’s side.

Arene Landon-Lane back at first-five.

The back three comprises Kautai on the left wing, Leti-l’iga on the right, and Norths’ teenage wonderkid Brooke Jones at fullback.

Poneke are the only club not represented from the eight that took part this season.

As with the men, there’s always a couple that are unlucky. Petone’s Milly Mackey was pipped by Peniata at halfback for the second successive year, while teammate and last year’s Best & Fairest winner Keira Su’a-Smith missed out to Jones at fullback despite winning the Dawn Patelesio Medal as player of the Tia Paasi Memorial Final.

Men’s Billy Wallace Team of the Yea

1. Senio Sanele (Upper Hutt Rams)
2. Leon Tuiloma (Upper Hutt Rams)
3. Tui Tuiatua (MSP)
4. Preston Moananu (MSP)
5. Hemi Fermanis (Tawa)
6. George Risale (Tawa)
7. Braith Ingram (Petone)
8. Dominic Ropeti (Ories)
9. Esi Komaisavai (Pare-Plim)
10. Andrew Wells (Wainuiomata)
11. Ifeanyi Nnbechukwu (Poneke)
12. Olly Paotunu (Jville)
13. Ieti Campbell (Upper Hutt Rams)
14. Jacob Walmsley (Jville)
15. Tom Maiava (Ories)
16. Andrew Jones (Poneke)
17. Bradley Crichton (Norths)
18. Anthony Pettett (Jville)
19. Olano Afutoto (Norths)
20. Waylon Tuhoro-Robinson (HOBM)
21. Carlos Hihi (Poneke)
22. Zion Fuiava (Norths)

Women’s Erin Rush Team of the Year

1. Zoe Clark (Wainuiomata)
2. Petra Ikenasio (Pare-Plim)
3. Dora Laupola (Norths)
4. Sanita Levave (Norths)
5. Liza de Wild (MSP)
6. Nina Foaese (Norths)
7. Alex Delves (Pare-Plim)
8. Mele Kupa-Cummings (Pare-Plim)
9. Savannah Peniata (Avalon)
10. Arene Landon-Lane (Norths)
11. Harmony Kautai (Petone)
12. Alumeci Nawaqatabu (Pare-Plim)
13. Litia Builcakau (Petone)
14. Ayesha Leti-l’iga (Ories)
15. Brooke Jones (Norths)

Esi Komaisavai and Harmony Kautai win Best & Fairest competitions