After another huge year of rugby in Australia and across the world it’s time to reflect on what’s been and to take a wild stab at predicting the future.
Joe Schmidt has restored some pride to the Wallabies in the aftermath of the Eddie Jones era, but faces a big test in 2025 with the Lions coming Down Under.
We’ve asked The Roar’s rugby editor Christy Doran and four of our expert columnists – Geoff Parkes, Harry Jones, Ben Pobjie and John Ferguson to pick their favourite players and moments, the game’s biggest villain, and their fearless predictions for 2025.
Australian Test player of the year
Christy Doran: Rob Valetini. The back-rower pips Fraser McReight, who missed five Tests. Valetini dented the line and hit like granite. It was a fine year.
Geoff Parkes: It’s tempting to point to the obvious, but Rob Valetini is handicapped by being measured against his own high-level consistency. Fraser McReight has undeniable claims but my vote goes to the player who transformed his game at Test level in what was a real coming of age season – if Tom Wright can hit the Lions series running at the same level he did this spring, the Wallabies are in with a big shout.
Harry Jones: Where would the Wallabies have been without indefatigable Rob Valetini to take the damn ball up, without momentum behind him, securely and decisively, directly into threshing machines, woodchippers, acid mosh pits, and razor-bladed blinders? Nowhere.
Rob Valetini. (Photo by Adam Pretty – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: There were many Wallabies who impressed in 2024: Rob Valetini, Tom Wright, Fraser McReight, Joseph Suaalii, et al. But only one player kept on fronting up in the gold jersey week after week despite the entirety of Australian rugby fandom constantly calling for his head. Thus, for persistence and indefatigability under constant pressure, and because I’m definitely the only person who’ll be saying this, Noah Lolesio is my player of the year.
John Ferguson: If this was an award for highlight moments, you’d have to think Tom Wright wraps this one easy, but when you think of integral cogs in the Wallabies’ ‘revival project’ under Schmidt, it’s still got to be Mr Consistent and John Eales Medallist – Rob Valetini.
World Test player of the year
Christy Doran: Cheslin Kolbe. The Springboks winger was a class above any other in his position, but he took it to new heights. A pocket rocket, who plays well above his weight, Kolbe popped up at hooker, halfback and was simply captivating in everything he did.
Geoff Parkes: As reactions to the emergence of Gout Gout suggest, everyone loves a turn of pace. France’s elite Louis Bielle Biarrey is the man with rugby’s jet shoes. Ireland’s Caelin Doris is an out and out champion. New Zealand’s emerging star, Wallace Sititi, somehow not only managed to make an impression in his first season, but showed maturity and a consistent and reliable standard of performance unmatched in any rookie I can recall. The top gong however, has to go to a Springbok – and it’s the perfect hybrid player, Pieter-Steph du Toit, who was their best in a very solid field.
Harry Jones: Ireland’s Caelan Doris never quit on any play, Thomas Ramos seemed to take over French leadership, Codie Taylor had a renaissance whilst Wallace Sititi announced his arrival, and Blair Kinghorn did us all a favour by slaughtering a Hogg load full of bad tastes. However, the Springboks began and ended the year as the number one side, unquestioned, just two kicks from perfection, so we go there and almost cannot make a bad choice from Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, or Ox Nche, but the Bok most influential in their success was the Malmesbury Missile, du Toit.
Cheslin Kolbe. (Photo by Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: For me it was between Cheslin Kolbe, who is the most exciting member of the brutally efficient South Africans, and Marcus Smith, who shone while his team didn’t. For scintillating highlights even in a disappointing season, and because South Africans have won enough already, I’m plumping for Smith.
John Ferguson: The GOAT-debate has ranged fiercer this year than in others, and although this is not an ‘all-time’ award, one still needs to consider the player’s body of work. Cheslin Kolbe has been good, Wallace Sititi was exciting, but Caelan Doris takes this for his fierce ball carrying, and the fact that he’s still not getting enough clout in the southern hemisphere, for his epic workload and impact.
Super Rugby player of the year
Christy Doran: Hoskins Sututu. The back-rower took a massive step forward under Vern-ball. He was the unluckiest player in the world not to receive a Test cap in 2024.
Geoff Parkes: Damian McKenzie can do what he likes in Super Rugby, and usually does. But this was the year of the Blues. So many good players, including the resurgent Patrick Tuipulotu, the nonchalant Hoskins Sotutu, and the unstoppable wingers Caleb Clarke and Mark Telea; but my nod goes to skipper Dalton Papalii.
Harry Jones: The Blues ruled the competition with rugged rugby. Thus, we look to their big forwards and specifically their captain, powerful Patrick Tuipolotu, who played the best rugby of his career on both sides of the ball.
Dalton Papali’i and Sam Darry of the Blues celebrate after winning the Super Rugby Pacific Grand Final . (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: As a patriot I would like to choose an Australian. But trying not to let pity sway me, I’m picking Sevu Reece, as the player who seemed most often to thrill if you were a Crusaders fan, or terrify when he got the ball if you weren’t.
John Ferguson: Can you really go past Hoskins Sotutu? His snubbing by Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson was to everyone’s bewilderment, but then again, he did pick Sititi, as his diamond in the rough. But was it a choice of Sititi v Sotutu? I think there are others who can count themselves lucky that Razor, for whatever reason, decided against picking the Blues star.
Favourite player of the year
Christy Doran: Tom Wright. The fullback’s inconsistency had summed up the Wallabies’ performances since 2016, but the Brumby’s coming of age ushered in a brave new attacking style where a DNA started to be seen.
Geoff Parkes: It seems that everyone in the rugby world who isn’t already betrothed to Antoine Dupont has fallen in love with Ilona Maher. My local crush was with Sam Talakai, who consistently demonstrated outstanding leadership and good humour and grace throughout the Rebels’ turmoil. But I feel like subverting the category here, and opting for ‘favourite rugby person of the year’… Joe Schmidt.
Harry Jones: Just before Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii skipped supposedly crucial Super Rugby Pacific to reinvent Aussie rugby finances forever, another handsome lad with hype and a hyphen burst on the scene: Bishops boy wonder and vibe merchant Sacha Feinberg-Mgomezulu can hit a goal from 60, find the camera, and conduct interviews like his dad is in PR media (he is).
Tom Wright. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: OK, this one’s got to be Tane Edmed. He inspired unlikely wins, he missed kicks to bring about heartbreaking losses, he shone and he stumbled and he wept and he was dropped and he went to New Zealand and carved it up so much he ended up getting on the field for the Wallabies. Whereupon he almost immediately hit his head and had to come off. I don’t see how anyone doesn’t love this guy.
John Ferguson: While there are flashier players around, few players, in the Australian set-up at least, developed and took hold of the reins tighter than the accurate hooker Matt Faessler and physical second rower Nick Frost. The tiebreaker must go to Frost for his 55m canter, to score that try in the Wales game.
Favourite moment of the year
Christy Doran: The obvious moment is Max Jorgensen’s stunning finish at Twickenham. The brilliant build-up and electric finish turned the script on Australian rugby and put the Wallabies back on the world stage. You could rewind an hour or so earlier and pick one of the several leaping moments from Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, where a star was born on the international stage. But an equally important moment was when Tom Wright lifted a Sydney crowd from their feet and got the Wallabies rolling under Joe Schmidt. Had the fullback not scored, the whole feel of the year could have been different.
Geoff Parkes: Rebels’ utility man Nick Jooste, grabbing hold of the kicking tee and nailing two late sideline conversions in the wet, to pull his side back to 23-23 against the Chiefs goes close, but the Wallabies’ brilliant finish to sink England at Twickenham was outstanding, and just the injection the game in Australia needed.
Harry Jones: Late in the Test between Ireland and South Africa at Loftus Versfeld, a Bok scrum convened close to the Irish try line. The crowd seemed to sense the moment, the visitors split asunder, the home pack ended up in a slow and trampling jog, and the referee ran under the posts, ending the contest and igniting a roar which surely was heard around scrum world.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: Others will say all that needs to be said about Australia’s spectacular win over England, so for my moment I’ll reach back into the mists of the past and nominate Tom Wright’s scorching 60 metre try against Wales. There were more significant moments, but that was the first time this year that it felt like Wallaby fans had something to get excited about.
John Ferguson: It has to be Max Jorgensen’s try at Twickenham. It was so much more than a great piece of finishing, it set the scene which allowed Joe Schmidt to show that his pragmatism had truly paid off. The signs of the Wallabies’ improvements were there beforehand but there was only so much joy fans could glean from quicker ruck speeds, better ball retention and good penalty stats. Although it was the first game of a four-game tour, that win in hindsight, put a bow on Schmidt’s first calendar year as the Wallabies’ top man.
Biggest villain
Christy Doran: Sione Tuipulotu. Scored a try against his country of birth, then prevented another out wide that killed off the Wallabies, and in-between he pushed and shoved his former teammates and capped it off by receiving a trophy from his granny.
Geoff Parkes: The most hotly contested category. Frank Lomani for his elbow. Eddie Jones for almost staying out of the headlines until he showed that you can’t take the hooker out of an old hooker. Every TMO that ever walked the planet. Danny Care and David Campese tying for pantomime villain. But the worthy winner is England’s RFU, for producing a report trumpeting how good England’s win/loss percentage was while conveniently leaving out their losses in New Zealand. And then, with professional and amateur clubs in crisis, and the ruling body reporting a loss for the year of £38m, awarding CEO Bill Sweeney a £358,000 bonus, bumping his salary for the year up to £1.1m. Nice work if you can get it.
Harry Jones: (Before reading, assume we are in the present, all sins and bans of the past no alibi). A few weeks ago, an oddly bitter Steve Hansen pronounced the All Black loss in Paris last year as robbery. If he was trying for solidarity with his old mate Ian Foster, he created the opposite effect, forcing Fossie out the next week to admit Shag’s cynical rhetoric was “fooling yourself.” It’s been a year; time to move on.
Scotland’s Sione Tuipulotu . (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: It would be easy to go for Eddie Jones, for his arrogance, his dishonesty, his reported fracturing relationship with his players. And I like things to be easy, so I’ll go for Eddie Jones.
John Ferguson: David Campese, simply for the fact that while the whole of Rugby Australia was beginning to do sensible, grown-up things like centralisation, hiring world class coaches, and working towards fiscal responsibility, Campese was on the negative campaign trail. Joe Schmidt this, Australian way that, players playing for money this, no person who says they have been “cancelled” has ever gotten more airtime.
Best game of the year
Christy Doran: France’s captivating win over the All Blacks was a marvellous spectacle, while the Springboks’ two-Test battles against Ireland and the All Blacks in consecutive months were engrossing. But it has to be the Wallabies’ last-gasp win at Twickenham.
Geoff Parkes: Nothing remotely approached last year’s magical quarter-final weekend in Paris, but the Blues’ 41-34 win over the Reds in Brisbane’s was a magnificent match, notable for the arrival on the big stage of Tim ‘Junkyard Dog’ Ryan, and the Blues running it in from distance well after the final siren, to snatch the win. On the Test scene, two audacious drop goals from Ciaran Frawley allowed Ireland to square their series against South Africa, in a thrilling conclusion in Durban.
Harry Jones: The spectacle of the November Test between France and New Zealand, coupled with the high quality of parry and thrust between two sides rounded into top form. Devoid of any tension which can jaundice or distort a watching, I was transfixed.
Ben Pobjie: There were some crackers, to be sure, but as a friend to the unloved and forgotten everywhere, I will extend the hand of friendship to Australia’s 20-19 victory over Argentina in a monsoon in La Plata. Distinguished by desperate defence and errors rather than copious highlights, it didn’t bring about much celebration, and was washed away by the humiliation of the following week, but in La Plata the Wallabies showed the capacity to grab onto the ankle of a game and refuse to let go – it was a welcome development.
John Ferguson: South Africa vs Ireland – Game 1. There was a sense of unfinished business, storylines galore to see if the South Africans could rise again after a second consecutive World Cup title. Each side played their quintessential game, the Springboks had their power and strength, while Ireland conversely played a structured and measured game, continuing their pod innovation. The Springboks’ almighty scrum shove at the end showed where the difference was on the day.
Biggest story of the year
Christy Doran: The backroom movement of the All Blacks and England was fascinating, as was Glasgow’s rise in the United Rugby Championship, but I’ll say the rise of the Wallabies under Joe Schmidt.
Geoff Parkes: Has to be the demise of the Rebels, but not for the reason most people think. Good performances from the Wallabies in the UK, the pending arrival of the Lions, and a glossy list of aspirations might have some fans feeling good about where Australian rugby sits right now, but not very deep underneath that, there remains serious, unaddressed questions around a narrowing focus on NSW and QLD, an inability to react quickly enough to develop women’s rugby, and handing over Australia’s second most populous state to rugby league. To the people who don’t care or don’t think this is important for the future health of the game in Australia, or it doesn’t matter that Carter Gordon was pushed to the NRL – trust me, it all matters.
Harry Jones: In Australia, the jettisoning of professional rugby in Victoria, with a case in court far from settled. In the rugby world at large, the late year ban on escorts for kick returners reshaped the game more than any amendment or shift of law in ages.
(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: The renaissance of Australian rugby under the passionate and articulate guidance of David Campese, whose advice and exhortations finally allowed our lads to show their best.
John Ferguson: Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii. Welcome to rugby.
Fearless prediction for 2025
Christy Doran: The Wallabies to defeat the Lions, who have several selection headaches in the inside backs.
Geoff Parkes: The Blues will go back to back in Super Rugby. The much anticipated Lions tour will be soured by brawling amongst the travelling army, clashing over which is the definitive tour song; ‘The Fields of Athenry’ (IRE). ‘500 Miles’ (SCO), ‘Delilah’ (WAL) and ‘Can We Fix It?’ by Bob the Builder (ENG).
Harry Jones: Tane Edmed will start all three of the Lions Tests, miss a kick to lose one, make two to win two, outplay his opposite number and understudies, be the first player to douse Joe Schmidt in beer, and begin to cure cancer with his excess red blood cells forming the basis of a vaccine named EdMedX.
Tane Edmed . (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Ben Pobjie: The NRL will appoint a Rugby Pondering Officer, whose job it will be to provide a weekly briefing on which rugby league players have been thinking about switching to rugby but have no plans at the moment but certainly would never say never but they’re happy with where they are but it’d be a great challenge and they’d love to give it a go but they don’t think so but maybe. Phil Waugh will subsequently spend an inordinate amount of time looking behind his couch.
John Ferguson: An Australian team will win Super Rugby Pacific and with it a return of the chatter about Super Rugby as an international quality club competition like the Top-14 will begin to return.
