21st October 2025
Good morning team, and welcome to another edition of Tuesday’s news.
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks following the end of the Rugby Championship, and waiting for the Spring tour to start in earnest. As usual, there are always things happening in the world of rugby. RA did their bit to help us out by holding their awards night on Friday night last week to fill in a gap in the rugby schedule, there were some key Aussies plying their trade in the Premiership in the UK, while the contenders for the final spot at RWC2027 were shortlisted. to battle it out through November.
Rugby Australia Awards
Happyman previewed the RA awards on Thursday and with the awards being handed out on Friday night, it flew under BLLs radar and provides some good news for yours truly to cover.
There is quite a list of awards handed out by RA and I particularly like this set of awards that were presented early in the night based on community contribution, spirit of the game, and recognising the value of referees at all levels.
The non-playing awards
Fedex Referee of the Year – Ella Goldsmith
Nick Farr-Jones Spirit of Rugby Award – Jo Staples, Queensland Rugby Union
Joe French Award for Outstanding Contribution to Rugby – John Edwards, RugbyWA
Geoff ‘Bunter’ Shaw Community Coach of the Year Award – John Carters, NSW Rugby
Andrew Cole Community Match Official of the Year – Craig Gardner, Tasmanian Rugby Referees
Congrats to all of these recipients, we wouldn’t have the game we love without their dedication and participation.
The next set of awards were given for defending and attacking prowess.
Cadbury Try of the Year – Max Jorgensen, Wallabies vs. England
Defender of the Year – Maddison Levi, Women’s 7s vs. NZ, Singapore
Both equally impressive, the comments ran hot here about the tackle, steal, and recovery by Madi Levi, and of course we all jumped out of skin when mad Max raced away to score against the Poms last year. Great play by both.
Junior and Rookie players
Junior Women’s Player of the Year – Mackenzie Davis, Women’s 7s
Junior Men’s Player of the Year – Aden Ekanayake, Men’s 7s/AUS U20s & Sid Harvey, Men’s 7s/AUS U20s
Santos Rookie of the Year Award – Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, NSW Waratahs & Wallabies
It feels odd to call JAS a rookie after he has played NRL including origin, but at the end of the day, for a young player, thrown into international rugby, he has made a good fist of it, and will only get better.
Super Rugby player awards
SMARTECH Super Rugby Women’s Player of the Year – Georgina Friedrichs, NSW Waratahs
SMARTECH Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year – Carlo Tizzano, Western Force
Hard to argue with either of those picks, both were very good for their respective super rugby sides, Tizzano really lifted his game this year, and G Fred is the picture of consistency for the Tahs.
Sevens player awards
Shawn Mackay Award for Women’s Sevens Player of the Year – Faith Nathan
Shawn Mackay Award for Men’s Sevens Player of the Year – James Turner
Congrats to Faith and James, Faith really stepped up with long term legend Caslick out of the team this year, and James is always on of the best in the Aussie men’s team. In news over on RA, Turner even got a surprise call up to the broader Wallabies squad to train opposite Corey Toole before the Eden Park test.
Mens and Womens player of the year.
Wallaroos Player of the Year – Tabua Tuinakauvadra
Congrats to Tuinakauvadra for her season at the Reds and Wallaroos. She adds real power and dynamism to the both teams and she edged out fellow nominees Desiree Miller and Cecilia Smith.
John Eales Medal – Len Ikitau
Ikitau has been a stand out for the Wallabies since his omission from the 2023 world cup, but even more so in the last 12 months. Regularly topped the player ratings, all while playing at inside centre, rather than his normal place at outside for the Brumbies. Ikitau beat out challenges from Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson to win the award.
Aussies abroad
There are plenty of Australian players playing for clubs around the world, however some key recent Wallabies players players took to the field over the weekend in the UK including:
- James O’Connor – Leicester Tigers, who got up for the win against Bath
- Tom Hooper and Len Ikitau – Exeter Chiefs, who smashed Harlequins 36-0
- Will Skelton – Stade Rochelais – Who put Montauban to the sword 54-19.
- Jordan Petaia – Perpignan – Petaia made his debut for the club on his return to rugby, and hopefully he can stay injury free for a while.
There are of course plenty of other Aussies playing around the world, and to quote happyman, we are an exporter of rugby talent.
Wallabies to face Japan this week
It’s test match time and the Wallabies will face Japan at 3:50pm Saturday from Japan National Stadium. The media will be talking up the revenge element, and so on, but I thought that Wilson handled it well when asked about the 2023 world cup and what it will mean to take on Eddie Jones’s Japanese side. He made it all about having respect for Japan, which the Wallabies will need to have if they want to secure a critical victory and start the tour on a good footing.
Another look at the Wallabies squad for the end of year tour.
It will be interesting to see who Joe Schmidt picks for this first game, I’d love to see some squad rotation, but not half the team like Rennie did ahead of the loss to Italy in 2022.
World Cup 2027
There is one spot left for the World Cup in 2027 with Belgium, Namibia, Samoa, and Paraguay set to battle it out through November in a round robin series with the best placed team earning the final spot in the 2027 draw. I reviewed 2 of the Namibia matches at the 2023 RWC, and they were good against Italy, and Uruguay, but who wouldn’t love to see Samoa get a chance to show their wares on the biggest stage, and maybe give us some highlight reels in the process.
Either way, good to luck to all 4 teams in the final qualifying series.
In case you missed it
Guest writer Mike D wrote a great article about refereeing and New Zealand Rugby. If you haven’t had a chance, you can read about it here.
That’s a Wrap
That’s it for me this week, as always thanks for reading this far, have a great Tuesday.
Cheers
