2009 G&GR Wallaby of the Year

Each week the members of our forum cast their 3-2-1 votes to contribute to the prestigious Green and Gold Rugby Wallaby of the Year.

The weekly Man of the Match, for each test so far, are revealed below, while the 2’s and 1’s are kept hidden for now to maintain the mystery.

Current Standings for G&GR Wallaby of the Year

The previous Man of the Match awards can be found here.

Game 5 – Australia v South Africa (Cape Town)

South Africa 29 (Victor Matfield try; More Steyn 7pg, dg) defeated Australia 17 (Adam Ashley-Cooper try; Matt Giteau try, 2 conv; Berrick Barnes dg)

Despite the Wallabies scoring first through Adam Ashley-Cooper, the Springboks displayed greater control and patience to take out the win leaving Australia without a win after two games.

It was the ‘Fat Cat’ Benn Robinson who stole the show for the Wallabies with a busy game around the field.  Not only was his scrummaging dominant but he was busy around the field both at the tackle and ball in hand.

Game 6 – Australia v New Zealand (Sydney)

New Zealand 19 (Ma’a Nonu try; Dan Carter conv, 4 pg) defeated Australia 18 (Matt Giteau 6 pg)

In another game that got away for the Wallabies the All Blacks were able to secure victory through a Dan Carter penalty goal with less than two minutes remaining on the clock. Highlights of the game can be found here.

In a highly physical encounter it was Wallaby captain George Smith, replacing the injured Stirling Mortlock as skipper, who stood out to the G&GR crowd.  With 16 tackles, an off-load and a handful of runs, Smith lead from the front in an improved Wallaby forward performance.

Game 7 – Australia v South Africa (Perth)

South Africa 32 (Bryan Habana 2, Fourie du Preez, Jaque Fourie tries; Morne Steyn 3 conv, 2 pg) defeated Australia 25 (Lachie Turner try; Matt Giteau 2 tries, 2 conv, 2 pg)

There’s no doubt about it, this score flattered the Wallabies as they were blown off the park but an massively impressive Springbok team.  Whilst Matt Giteau scored 20 points from flyhalf, it was elsewhere that G&GR looked for their Man of the Match.

Once again our Number 1 was the Wallaby Number 1, Benn Robinson. He smashed John Smit in the scrums in pretty much the only positive to come out of the game.  But it was more than just his scrummaging as Robinson made plenty of tackles, plenty of runs and hit plenty of rucks and mauls.  In the end unfortunately he was largely on his own.

Game 8 – Australia v South Africa (Brisbane)

Australia 21 (Adam Ashley-Cooper, James O’Connor tries; Matt Giteau conv, 2 pg; dg) defeated South Africa 6 (Morne Steyne pg, dg)

Finally! The Wallabies were able to show some sort of continuity on the field. As you would expect, the performance was based largely on a dominant forward performance. And that dominant performance started at the scrum and so……Benn Robinson is once again the G&GR Man of the Match. 

What he did to the Springbok scrum has not been seen by a Wallaby crowd for a long long long long time. The best Loose Head Prop in the world? Yeah, sure. Why not?

Game 9 – Australia v New Zealand (Wellington)

New Zealand 33 (Joe Rokocoko, Cory Jane, Ma’a Nonu tries; Dan Carter 3 conv, 4 pg) defeated Australia 6 (Matt Giteau pg; Berrick Barnes dg)

Wow! What a shellacking.  This was a hard one to pick a Man of the Match for because, on the whole, the Wallabies were woeful. So tough to pick was it, that we had the least number of entries submitted for this match than any all season. A sign of the disappointment most supporters had to the Wallaby’s performance.

In the end though it was the hard running man in the 13 jersey, not Stirling Mortlock this time, but Adam Ashley-Cooper.  Meh. Last man standing really.