Billy Wallace Best and Fairest Team of the Season

Above: MSP’s Peter Sciascia (left) and Poneke’s Sam Tui are the halfback and No. 8 in the Wellington club rugby Team of the Season, which has been selected on points accumulated in the Billy Wallace Best and Fairest competition.

Although his team didn’t make the playoffs, Poneke No. 8 Sam Tui wrapped up the 2013 Billy Wallace Best and Fairest competition at the conclusion of the 18-week round-robin season. Tui finished on 21 points, just ahead of MSP halfback Peter Sciascia on 20 and Petone flanker Mateaki Kafatolu on 18, another player from a team that missed out on the semi-finals.

Based entirely on the order of finishing of the Billy Wallace Best and Fairest competition that has run over the past few months, we have named a Team of the Season.

In naming the Team of the Season there are several points to note. The first is that owing to points only being awarded in the Jubilee Cup in the second round, players who accumulated points in the Swindale Shield round but whose team missed out on the top eight have missed out. These four clubs not represented are: Northern United, the Wests Roosters, Rimutaka and Upper Hutt.

Second, players in the Team of the Season have been selected in the position that they played most of their games in. [Considerable] Licence could have been made to list players here out of position or to move players around? the backs or the loose forwards, for example, to accommodate others. But the aim here is to fill this team with players in the positions that they predominantly played and accumulated their points in over 20 rounds of the season.

Third, as is the case year-in-year-out with this competition, lock and loose forward were the most frequently awarded positions for points, so several consistently performing players are unlucky to miss out. Deserving a mention here are flankers Isaac O’Connor (MSP), Jason Risdon (HOBM), Greg Foe (Poneke) and Dean Brunsdon (Norths, Hardham Cup player) and locks Shahn Eru (Wainuiomata), Chris Molenaar (Petone) and Charlie Graham (MSP).

The explanations above thus given, here is the 2013 Billy Wallace Best & Fairest Wellington club rugby Team of the Year, with their points accumulated in brackets with their club:

1. Tolu Fahamokioa (Tawa, 4)

2. James O’Reilly (HOBM, 6)

3. Taniela Koroi (Tawa, 9)

4. Presley Tufaga (Poneke, 10)

5. Dan Mellon (OBU, 7)

6. Joketani Koroi (Tawa, 10)

7. Mateaki Kafatolu (Petone, 18)

8. Sam Tui (Poneke, 21)

9. Peter Sciascia (MSP, 20)

10. Brandyn Laursen (HOBM, 15)

11. Afa Fa’atau (Ories, 15)

12. Nick Grigg (Petone, 4)

13. Paulo Aukoso (Ories, 7)

14. Tauasosi Tuimavavae (Poneke, 8)

15. Randall Bishop (Tawa, 9)

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