Sensationally unnoticed of the Wallabies’ 2023 World Cup marketing campaign, Len Ikitau has answered again emphatically by claiming the John Eales Medal two years later.
By claiming Australia’s highest males’s gong, the 27-year-old turns into the primary midfielder to win the distinguished medal for the reason that award’s inception in 2002.
Whereas the midfielder has lengthy been considered one of many sport’s finest outdoors centres, his shift one place nearer to the motion has seen his repute solely develop.
That was definitely the case final November as Ikitau’s audacious out-the-back flick cross put flying winger Max Jorgensen away to assist the Wallabies snap their nine-year drought at Twickenham.
Within the course of, the good midfielder earned the nickname Lenny ‘Flickitau’.
Len Ikitau and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii rejoice after beating England with a last-second attempt at Twickenham. (Photograph by Andrew Matthews/PA Photographs by way of Getty Photographs)
Alongside the way in which, Ikitau has typically outshone his high-profile teammate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who loved his personal spectacular debut towards England at Twickenham.
Ikitau, who has joined Exeter on a short-term deal and missed the occasion, has been one among Joe Schmidt’s first picked gamers over the previous two years and his stardom has solely risen over the previous three months with sturdy performances towards the Lions and thru The Rugby Championship.
“I feel that is in all probability the most effective years that I’ve loved within the Wallabies jersey,” Ikitau advised reporters by way of Zoom on Friday night time.
“When it comes to the way in which we’ve been enjoying, the way in which that we need to play, it’s simply been thrilling. Clearly, there’s been a number of video games the place we’ve misplaced, however general, I’ve loved my time this yr.”
On the win over England, Ikitau mentioned the match represented a “turning level” for Schmidt’s Wallabies.
“I feel that sport was sort of the turning level for us,” he mentioned. “We had been coming off a poor rugby championship and we wished to start out quick. That was a loopy sport to be part of.”
Suaalii didn’t depart empty-handed, with the Wallabies No.13 topped rookie of the yr.
Regardless of an injury-disrupted Tremendous Rugby season, the code-hopper hasn’t missed a Take a look at since debuting towards England.
However so damaging was he for the Waratahs, particularly at fullback, that he was included within the official Tremendous Rugby group of the yr.
In the meantime, Wallaroos back-rower Tabua Tuinakauvadra capped a marvellous yr by claiming Australia’s girls’s participant of the yr award.
The strong-running loose-forward was an everyday beneath Jo Yapp and performed a key position within the aspect claiming the WXV2 trophy final yr.
She then continued her stellar type this yr, scoring usually and that includes prominently in the course of the aspect’s run to the quarterfinals.
Carlo Tizzano’s sturdy Tremendous Rugby type noticed him play towards the Lions. (Photograph by Matt Roberts/Getty Photographs)
In different awards, Drive back-rower Carlo Tizzano and Waratahs centre Georgie Freidrichs respectively gained the lads’s and ladies’s finest gamers in Tremendous Rugby.
James Turner and Religion Nathan gained the Shawn Mackay Award for Australia’s finest sevens gamers.
Aden Ekanayake and Sid Harvey had been joint winners for junior males’s participant of the yr for his or her performances for each Australia 7s and Australia U20s, whereas 20-year-old Mackenzie Davis picked up junior girls’s participant of the yr after her breakout yr on the Sevens circuit.
The Referee of the Yr Award went to Ella Goldsmith, who alongside along with her important Take a look at commitments, was appointed to officiate the 2025 Girls’s Rugby World Cup Bronze Medal Match.
Wallabies nice George Smith was inducted to the Corridor of Fame together with Tui Ormsby.
2025 Rugby Australia Awards – winners checklist
John Eales Medal – Len Ikitau
Wallaroos Participant of the Yr – Tabua Tuinakavadura
Shawn Mackay Award for Males’s Sevens Participant of the Yr – James Turner
Shawn Mackay Award for Girls’s Sevens Participant of the Yr – Religion Nathan
Tremendous Rugby Pacific Participant of the Yr – Carlo Tizzano, Western Drive
Tremendous Rugby Girls’s Participant of the Yr – Georgina Friedrichs, NSW Waratahs
Rookie of the Yr Award – Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, NSW Waratahs & Wallabies
Junior Males’s Participant of the Yr – Aden Ekanayake, Males’s 7s/AUS U20s & Sid Harvey, Males’s 7s/AUS U20s
Junior Girls’s Participant of the Yr – Mackenzie Davis, Girls’s 7s
Cadbury Attempt of the Yr – Max Jorgensen, Wallabies vs. England
Defender of the Yr – Maddison Levi, Girls’s 7s vs. NZ, Singapore
Referee of the Yr – Ella Goldsmith
Nick Farr-Jones Spirit of Rugby Award – Jo Staples, Queensland Rugby Union
Joe French Award for Excellent Contribution to Rugby – John Edwards, RugbyWA
Geoff ‘Bunter’ Shaw Group Coach of the Yr Award – John Carters, NSW Rugby
Andrew Cole Group Match Official of the Yr – Craig Gardner, Tasmanian Rugby Referees
