50 years of the Billy Wallace Trophy: Part 6

Celebrating 50 years of the Billy Wallace Best and Fairest Wellington Premier club rugby competition. The Billy Wallace competition has been contested annually since its inception in 1966. Players in every Premier match are awarded points on a 3, 2 and 1 basis.

Part 6 below profiles the winners between 1991-96

1991
Winner: Ofisa Tonu’u 
Position: Halfback
Club: Poneke 
Best and Fairest points accrued: 18
About: Former Rongotai College halfback Ofisa ‘Junior’ Tonu’u’s older brother Hennie (also a Poneke halfback) had been in Best & Fairest contention several times throughout the 1980s. Poneke lost the Jubilee Cup ‘final’ in 1991 for the second consecutive year, going down to Hutt Old Boys, and Tonu’u had also missed out making the NZ Colts earlier in the year, so winning the Billy Wallace competition was good reward. He later carved out a provincial and Super Rugby career with Wellington, Auckland, the Hurricanes and the Blues and at Newport in Wales, while also playing 10 combined Tests for Western Samoa and the All Blacks between 1992-1998. Two years after winning this, Tonu’u won the Gallaher Shield with his Auckland club Ponsonby. Tonu’u finished on 18 points, three clear of Hutt Old Boys loose forward Gavin Hill, Petone’s Simon Mannix and University’s Harry Schuster.

1992
Winner: Filo Tiatia
Position: No. 8
Club: Western Suburbs
Best and Fairest points accrued: 23
About: Western Suburbs shared the 1992 Hardham Cup with Northern United, upsetting Norths 26-13 in the season decider. Filo Tiatia scored a key second half try and played a big hand in this win, as he had done for Wests all season. Heading into the final round, Tiatia was just a point ahead of Marist St Pat’s halfback Elton Moncrieff – whom he had played with in the NZ Secondary Schools team just two years earlier. But Tiatia collected a point in the final win over Norths and Moncrieff went unrewarded for MSP. Tiatia (23) and Moncrieff (21) finished ahead of Johnsonville’s Steve Dickson (18) and Tawa’s Adrian McKenzie (17). Tiatia credited his family for his strong form, in particular his father Ieti Tiatia, a former Jubilee Cup winner with Athletic, and for being injury free after previous ankle troubles. Like Tonu’u the previous year, he missed selection in the NZ Colts, coached by former Best and Fairest winners Andy Leslie and Dave Mahanga, but he went on to play almost 150 combined matches for Wellington and the Hurricanes, countless more overseas in Wales and Japan and twice for the All Blacks in 2000.

1993:
Winner: Isaac Feaunati
Position: No. 8
Club: Marist St Pat’s
Best and Fairest points accrued: 30
About: Not since Petone’s Allan Hewson’s runaway win in this competition in 1979, had a winner won the Best and Fairest Competition as emphatically as Isaac Feaunati did in in 1993. The hard working MSP No. 8 Feaunati finished 11 points clear of the second placed finisher, Harlequins No. 8 Chris Te’o, with MSP halfback Elton Moncreiff on 18 and Tawa’s Matthew Boyd on 15. Already a confirmed winner, Feaunati started celebrating his Best and Fairest win in MSP’s 23-3 semi-final win over Avalon and he was awarded 3 points in this playoff game for his part as a “damaging ball runner”. MSP went on to lose 15-27 to Petone in the final, after MSP led 12-6 at halftime. Former St Pat’s First XV star Feaunati praised his Premier coach Kevin Horan for his strong form. He went on to be selected in the 1993 Wellington B team, cancelling a planned off-season playing rugby in the USA.

1994:
Winner: Isaac Feaunati
Position: No. 8
Club: Marist St Pat’s
Best and Fairest points accrued: 19
About: Isaac Feaunati became the first back-to-back winner in the Billy Wallace competition since former MSP halfback Neil Sorensen won in 1982 and 1983 (Sorensen a joint winner in 1982). Only Scott Waldrom (Avalon, 2000 and 2001) has won it twice in succession since. Feaunati clinched the competition in the final by earning 2 points in MSP’s 27-13 win over Petone. MSP collected the ‘double, also beating Petone 18-15 in the final match of the first round to win the Swindale Shield. He finished ahead of Wellington wing Chris Robinson, with Alan Henderson (Stokes Valley), Mike Umaga (Petone), Doug Power (HOBM) and Feaunati’s loose forward MSP teammate Gordon Simpson all featuring. Feaunati went on to play matches for both Wellington A and B in 1994. He later had a brief stint with the Crusaders, played 13 Tests for Samoa and played in the UK for over a decade. Now Coaching Director at Old Boys University.

1995:
Winners: Gordon Simpson and Andrew Smids
Positions: Simpson flanker and Smids wing
Clubs: Simpson Marist St Pat’s and Smids Wellington
Best and Fairest points accrued: 20
About: Shared for the first time since 1982 when Neil Sorenson and Jim Laing were joint winners. Smids could consider himself unlucky not to win the Billy Wallace competition outright. He had a 3-point lead to Simpson heading into the last match of the season, which happened to be the Jubilee Cup final that his Wellington team wasn’t involved but Simpson’s MSP was. Turned out that ‘Badger’ Simpson had a blinder in the final, scoring one of two first half tries and then was instrumental in a mammoth second half defensive effort that gave MSP a 20-18 win over Petone. Simpson was the Player of the Match and drew level with Smids on 20 points. For Smids, it was also a case of second time unlucky in putting the trophy under his pillow for the next 12 months; in 1986 he had led the competition before being overtaken by Paul Goodwin at the end. The pair finished three points clear of Kimo Bryce (MSP), Simon Mannix (Petone) and 1992 winner Filo Tiatia.