Best & Fairest Swindale Shield Form XV

Above: Wainuiomata and Tawa pack down for a scrum on Saturday. The current two Best & Fairest competition frontrunners, Hemi Fermanis and Ben Tupuola come from these two forward packs. Wainuiomata and Tawa meet again this coming weekend in the opening round of the Jubilee Cup and the ground could shake. 

One of the staples of our coverage of Wellington club rugby has been the annual team named at the end of the year based on the Billy Wallace Best & Fairest standings. Because points aren’t awarded for Hardham Cup matches, standout players from the six sides that don’t make the Jubilee Cup often get overlooked if for no other reason that they miss out on up to 9 matches.

So here at Club Rugby HQ we’ve decided that we’ll name a team based on the standings at the end of the Swindale Shield, as well as our usual end of season side.

We’ve named a traditional starting XV, plus a regular seven man bench. Players are named in the position they’ve primarily played, and any ties have been broken by the number of times the player was awarded points.

Some positions – like lock – were relatively easy while others such as hooker we’ve had to delve deeper into the list to find. A feature is that five players from teams going into the Hardham Cup make our 22, and in all 155 players received points under the 3-2-1 system in the first 13 rounds.

Number of Best & Fairest points through the 13-round Swindale Shield are in parenthesis.

1. Jonathan Fuimaono (6) – Old Boys-University
2. Valentine Meachen (5) – Marist St Pats
3. Joe ‘Apikatoa (6) – Hutt Old Boys Marist
4. Hemi Fermanis (18) – Tawa
5. Cole Stewart (14) – Poneke
6. Parekura Lalaga (12) – Norths
7. Antony Fox (11) - Norths
8. Ben Tupuola (16) – Wainuiomata
9. Sheridan Rangihuna (10) – Hutt Old Boys Marist
10. Brandyn Laursen (6) – Hutt Old Boys Marist
11. Mike Buckley (10) – Marist St Pats
12. Ben Peni (8) – Avalon
13. Lester Maulolo (15) – Petone
14. Joyner Key (7) – Upper Hutt Rams
15. Blake Neve (7) – Paremata-Plimmerton

16. James O’Reilly (3) – Hutt Old Boys Marist
17. James Coburn (5) – Tawa
18. Chris Middleton (6) – Norths
19. Sam Gard’ner (10) – Wellington
20. Adam Deck (6) – Oriental-Rongotai
21. Dale Sabbagh (5) – Old Boys-University
22. Pepesana Patafilo (6) – Tawa

Current Best & Fairest Leaders (italics indicate Hardham Cup team)

18 points – Hemi Fermanis (Tawa)
16 points – Ben Tupuola (Wainuiomata)
15 points – Lester Maulolo (Petone)
14 points – Cole Stewart (Poneke)
12 points – Parekura Lalaga (Norths)
11 points – Antony Fox (Norths)
10 points – Mike Buckley (MSP), Sam Gard’ner (Wellington), Sheridan Rangihuna (HOBM)