Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Maddison Levi and Eva Karpani receive accolades at Rugby Australia Awards

Credit: Brendan Hertel/RugbyAU

Maddi Levi and Eva Karpani have been recognised for their standout performances last year at the Rugby Australia Awards in Sydney this week.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sevens superstar Levi was presented with the Shawn Mackay Award for Women’s Sevens Player of the Year after a year in which she was a key asset in securing Paris 2024 qualification, scoring a record 57 tries in the 2022/23 season along the way.

In addition, she was also a nominee for World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year last year.

Levi said after receiving the award in Sydney: “It was a pretty exciting year for me. I guess I’ve just grown as a player and an athlete and I continue to build on that so to top it off with those accolades, it just shows how hard that I am working off the field. Once again I probably couldn’t have done it without the girls beside me, they set me up and make my job look a lot easier than it is.

“We work so hard on that strength and power and speed so those skills I’m just building on as a player which makes it easier to take the outside. That’s something I’ve always had, the ability to back myself on the outside and then if all else fails I can carry strong. Whilst building that speed and power I can continue to build on my game.”

The 21-year-old also reflected on the 2023/24 HSBC SVNS series so far which has seen her team secure victories in the first two rounds in Dubai and Cape Town.

Despite opening-round elation, two red cards for dangerous tackles have seen Levi sidelined for portions of the games that followed.

She said: “It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Dubai and Cape Town were such unreal tournaments for me and I just showcased what I had been working on in pre-season. Two little setbacks, but as I said I’ve got the girls who are like my sisters beside me and they’ve helped me deal with it and they came out and absolutely smashed Perth facing so much adversity and Walshy [Tim Walsh] as well.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’s good because I’ve got something to work on, tackle technique is definitely a main focus of my training now. I guess it’s the highs and lows of sport, and you’ve got to experience them all. Last year was so good, so a little bit of adversity now but I’ll be back better than ever.”

Video Spacer

Fellow countrywoman Karpani was awarded Wallaroos Player of the Year for the first time after a breakthrough year.

The barnstorming tighthead prop scored three tries in Australia’s memorable victory over France and contributed a magnificent solo try against Wales in the inaugural WXV 1 tournament last October and November.

In addition, she started all eight Tests in 2023 and was named in the top five for carries for any player during WXV 1.

ADVERTISEMENT

“To be honest, I was just happy to be here, happy to be with the girls and to reunite after a year. I don’t think an award really shows how much the team has done in this past year so I’m genuinely humbled and grateful,” the award winner said.

“Because of the players who have come before us, we’ve been able to build to where we are now. We’ve learned a lot along the way and with the senior team we have now, I have strong hope in them to enable us to have a a stronger connection for the upcoming years.

“I’d love to change the image of a tighthead prop that we can be versatile and agile, not just a powerful ball runner,” she added.

Video Spacer

After some stellar results in 2023 for Australia’s women’s teams, this year stands as vital preparation for 15s teams globally in the build-up to the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.

“I have so much confidence in this team and it’s going to be hard work but I have all the confidence in the world for us to build in a pre-World Cup year,” Karpani said.

“What got us there [beating France] firstly was belief but after the game we had against France it was just a lot of backing even more. We had our supporters backing us since day one but it was just an electric feeling in the changing rooms afterwards. It was exciting to see genuinely what we could do in this year [before RWC2025].

With the Pacific Four Series fast approaching and Jo Yapp now in place as the Wallaroos’ new head coach, Karpani also looks forward to learning from the former England captain’s experience as a player and a coach.

“She brings experience as she was a player for England. She has captained her country. It would be nice to gain knowledge from her as a player,” she added.

From the men’s teams, Henry Paterson was awarded the Shawn Mackay Award for Men’s Sevens Player of the Year, and Rob Valetini won the John Eales Medal to complete the major awards.

 

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Michael Hooper reacts to Scott Barrett’s controversial late-game call Michael Hooper reacts to Scott Barrett’s controversial late-game call
Search