10 June 1025
Good morning team, and welcome to another Tuesday news on G&GR. If you missed the rugby on the weekend, there’s always Stan and replays or you can catch BlL’s excellent summary of the qualifying finals in the Tuesday news here.
The cover image is one of the iconic images of the 2013 Lions tour, what will this year bring?
What’s on this week
It’s still early enough in the week to be hopeful about how much we can all achieve before an early finish on Friday afternoon to watch the rugby at 4:00pm, well 4:05pm anyway. It should be a cracking match as the Crusaders host the Blues and try to keep their unbelievable winning streak alive. 30 games to zero is the Crusaders record in home finals, which is on one hand mind blowing, and on the other hand, well, it’s the Crusaders who’ve won the title 16 times, including 7 straight from 2017 to 2023. The Blues will be up against it this weekend, as they were up against it when they snatched a late victory against the Chiefs last weekend in Hamilton.
Then we get to tune in on Saturday afternoon at the same time to see the Brumbies travel to Hamilton to take on the Chiefs, who as the highest place loser from last weekend, get to have a second crack this weekend. I understand the Super Rugby Pacific rules and how it works for the Chiefs to get a home semi-final, but I would’ve thought it would be easier to say, the two highest place winners get to host a semi-final, and the two lowest placed losers are done for the season. But I didn’t get to make the rules and the Chiefs finished first so they get to have a second home final. Anyway, go Donkeys, the whole of Australia should be cheering for you to go and get the away win.
A Tuesday summary
As usual for a Tuesday, we’ll go around the grounds a bit and then look at the best performers from the Australian Super Rugby teams that played on the weekend.
Awards time
With the Force and the Tahs not playing courtesy of not making the top 6, the Force used the weekend to celebrate their achievements with their 2025 awards night.
Congrats to Tom Robertson and Trilleen Pomare for taking out the Nathan Sharpe and Rebecca Clough medals respectively. Both awards are voted on by the players on a 3-2-1 basis after each game and Robertson was a clear winner with 267 votes, beating out Harry Potter (241) and Carlo Tizzano (200). Robertson played every game for the season, racked up his 100th Super Rugby game, made 197 tackles, second only to Tizzano with 198, and carried the ball 71 times for 300 metres. He ran more than 40 of them in one try scoring effort against the Reds earlier in the season. Great reward for the season, has he done enough to see him in Wallaby gold? In related news, Robertson has re-signed with the Force to 2027, which is great for the club and Australian rugby.
It was a closer run competition in the Rebecca Clough medal with Pomare winning it with 74 votes ahead of Anneka Stephens (71) and emerging star Tamika Jones on 41 points. Pomare has been the club captain since 2020, and has only missed one game since the Super Rugby W first kicked off in 2018. In 2025 the Force captain and Wallaroo was an attacking threat with her powerful carries, quick feet, sharp offloads and tackle breaks, capped by a nice try in the round 4 win over the Fijian Drua.
The balance of the Force’s awards are listed below, and it’s no surprises to see Tizzano and Champion de Crespigny featuring for the men’s team, and Anneka Stephens and Pomare featuring for the women’s team with the way they played all season.
2025 Award Winners
Nathan Sharpe Medal: Tom Robertson
Rebecca Clough Medal: Trilleen Pomare
Members’ Super Rugby MVP: Carlo Tizzano
Members’ Super W MVP: Trilleen Pomare
Men’s Rising Star: Albert Alcock
Women’s Rising Star: Grace Freeman
Force Man Award: Nick Champion de Crespigny
Force Woman Award: Anneka Stephens
Adrian Blacker Award: Anton Zackey
Super Rugby Team of the Year
In more Force related news, three Force players, Williams, Tizzano, and Potter made the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific team of the year.
Captain Talk
There was some chatter on G&GR on Monday about an article on rugby.com.au and The Roar that suggested newly re-signed Waratahs skipper Jake Gordon might be named Wallabies captain ahead of the Lions tour. You can read the article here, and as you would expect there was plenty of chat/debate about merit and whether Harry Wilson and other loose forwards might be more on rotation during the series.
It will be interesting to see who makes the Wallabies squad and who’s named as the Wallabies captain ahead of the series. Gordon may be a good pick, he leads his state, is held in high regard, and based on last year, he was picked as the starting half back. Then again half backs are almost always replaced some time in the game, meaning that the captaincy would also change at that point. I’m not advocating for co-captains on the field at the same time, rather identifying a group of core players who will be called on during the series to lead the team and be the captain at any particular point of the game if needed.
The Wallabies will include strong leaders like 7As, Harry Wilson, Jeremy Williams, Tate McDermott and Jake Gordon as those players who regularly lead their state sides, so they shouldn’t be lacking for someone to take charge and set the tone.
A well deserved award
News out of Queensland Reds media and Australian rugby is that Queensland and Wallaroos legend Shirley Russell will be recognised with a gong in the King’s Birthday honours list.
Russell has devoted a lifetime to rugby. Her Member of the Order of Australia (AM) recognises her service over three decades as a Queensland player, coach and volunteer.
The AM follows recognition as the Queensland Rugby Union’s first female Life Member in 2024. Her pioneering role when women’s rugby was first gaining a foothold in Queensland in the mid-90s is a substantial part of her resume as well as her ongoing involvement.
You can read the full article on Rugby Australia’s website here: but this next bit resonated for me, I think it’s awesome.
“In March, she was coaching at the kids clinics when the Classic Wallabies played in Toowoomba and popped down to a night of local girls rugby for good measure. “I coach rugby players. Most often, they just happened to be women,” Russell said of breaking down gender stereotypes.“
The New Zealand-born Russell was a flanker in the original Queensland women’s team in 1996 and represented the Wallaroos at the 1998 World Cup, but she definitely isn’t resting on her laurels, and will be kicking off a new podcast series next month called Scrum Sistas to coincide with the Australia v Wales test matches.
Congratulations from us at Green & Gold Rugby, the game that we love to play and watch wouldn’t exist without people like this.
A Wallabies team of the week
This will be the final Wallabies potential team of the week for this SR season as the Brumbies are the last team standing. As usual it’s tough to compare across the two games played by the Brumbies and the Reds. The Brumbies were very good in their home win against the Canes, whereas the Reds were outplayed across the park by the Crusaders in Christchurch. Anyway, here we go:
- James Slipper – Jimmy Slips put in a good shift and bagged a meat pie.
- Billy Pollard – scored a brace of tries, the scrum was solid and the lineout was good.
- Allan Alaalatoa – another cracking performance, the scrum and maul were dominant and he scored his 8th try of the season.
- Nick Frost – the Brumbies did concede 4 lineout turnovers, but Frost with the other tight forwards held their own against the Canes.
- Tom Hooper – rated as the player of the game by most of the G&GR craparazzi.
- Bob Valetini – keeps of keeping on, including a wonderful offload to Wright for the Brumbies 4th try.
- Fraser McReight – along with Wilson, really held his own against the Crusaders.
- Harry Wilson – there was only so much that Fraser and Harry could do against a dominant Crusaders team. His kick through for Fraser’s try was sublime.
- Ryan Lonergan – his kicking and passing were on point against the Canes.
- Noah Lolesio – winners are grinners, and Noah was good against the Canes. 5 from 5 conversions and very good kicking for touch from penalties kept the pressure on the Canes.
- Corey Toole – pace, and more pace, looked dangerous with the ball.
- David Feliuai – Feliuai was very good, running, passing, and tackled well.
- Len Ikitau – another good game from Ikitau.
- Lachie Anderson – played on the other wing, but thought he went well.
- Tom Wright – scored a fantastic try off a Valetini offload and was otherwise very good.
- Josh Nasser – get the nod for the try.
- Lington Leli – the Brumbies reserve front row maintained their shape against the Canes.
- Feao Fotuaika – gets the nod because of how badly the Reds scrum went.
- Ryan Smith – his last game for the Reds for a while, he’ll be missed.
- Luke Reimer – played the role of finisher and did it well.
- Tate McDermott – not his best game, but the forwards didn’t adjust to being bashed.
- Josh Flook – was one of the Reds best, his early break should’ve led to more than a knock on.
- Filipo Daugunu – was good for the Reds, physical, and took over the goal kicking when Lynagh went off.
Let me know what you think in the comments (did I pick too many Tahs players?).
To play or not to play
Does anyone else struggle to understand why the Lions have a tour match against Argentina at Aviva Stadium before they start their tour? Is it cash driven, or a chance for the Argentina to put a marker in the ground and say what about us, why don’t we get a Lions tour?
It’s only 18 days until the Lions play their first game down under against the Western Force on 28 June. The first test is three weeks later on 19 July, so the real question is, will the Force players that make the Wallabies squad get released to play against the Lions, to get a feel for the intensity, and to stay match hardened? Particularly if the Wallabies pick a larger squad, should the players be playing, or training?
The same question can asked of the Reds and the Waratahs, who’ll take the field against the Lions on 2 and 5 July, respectively. With two weeks between the Tahs game and the first test, should the Reds and Tahs players get to play for their provincial sides rather than staying in camp with the Wallabies. The chance to play the Lions is going to come around once for most of these players, I think they should be released to play for their home teams, to make the games more competitive, and to keep the players fit. Of course there’ll be the risk of injury, but there’s also the chance to make a comeback from injury. For players like Faessler, JAS and others that are currently injured it could be the perfect time to get back onto the field.
Is it too late for the Brumbies to have some of their Wallabies contingent play? It’s only 10 days before the first test, so maybe fringe players, or those not likely to feature in the first match day 23 could run out for the Brumbies.
What do you think? Which of the Wallabies squad should get to play for their provincial side against the Lions? We can talk about the Invitational sides next week.
That’s a wrap
As always, thanks for making it this far, have a great day and look forward to the comments.
