Australian Super 14 Team of the Year 2009

A season of mostly torment and failure for Australia's Super 14 teams has finally come to a shuddering halt. With the carcass still steaming the Rolling Maul casts its eyes over the wreckage to find a few diamonds in the mixed metaphor.

Props

Matt Dunning - Of course. It wouldn't be a Super Rugby season without Matt Dunning taking out the prop of the year award. His influence is as immense as his girth, even when injured for an entire season, as he was this season. The Waratahs scaled new heights and plumbed new depths in his honour. "Do Dunning Proud" was the rallying cry on the field as shots at goal were missed, tries fumbled and tackles missed. The game may change but a team with 15 Mat Dunnings running around will always meet low expectations and fail to deliver. This year was no exception.

AJ Whalley - A player with a chin as big as his barrel chest, Mr Incredible's devastating work at the bottom of rucks and collapsed scrums lit up the Subiaco crowd. 10 incredible minutes per match is testimony to the hard work he put into the off season trying to come up with a name instead of initials. Alas he failed, on and off the field, but every team needs its cuddly mascot.

Hooker

Saia Faingaa - Still the best looking player running around in Australian Rugby according to the missus so keeps his spot from 2008. His move from the Brumbies to the Reds this season was a masterstroke of career murder and poor timing as the Reds floundered and the Brumbies floundered too but not as badly.

Second Row (Locks)

Van Humphries - It seems like Van Humphries has been around forever and that's because he has. It's nearly 10 years since he made his debut for the Reds and in that time has played all over the world and in NSW without ever securing a starting spot in any team he's played for. This season was no exception, indeed Humphries had a chance, got dropped and then waited for the rest of the team to fall over injured before getting a start again. Then he got injured too. The Reds deserve Humphries and Humphries deserves the Reds.

Tom Hockings - When your Captain and second row partner is as bald as Nathan Sharpe you need a full head of hair to create an impression. Hockings might lack ball retention skills, scrummaging ability and grunt, but he more than makes up for them with free guest passes as a result of his membership at most of Perth's boutique hairdressers and the decreased necessity for the Force to spend money on headgear.

Number 8

Scott Fava's sideburns - Fava became the first player to have taken the field for every Australian Super 14 team when he ran on for the Waratahs early in the season with new more conservative but still outlandish facial growth. It was the final desperate act of a desperate man running away from the headlines. It worked spectacularly well. After two matches Fava's form was so awful he was dumped quicker than anything even Matt Dunning could achieve after a night on the curry and hasn't been seen from since. Mission accomplished.

Halfback

Sydney International Airport - OK, stick with me here. Josh Valentine started with the Reds then went to the Waratahs and then the Force and has now signed with the Brumbies to replace Josh Holmes who was a Waratah and then a Brumby and has signed to return to the Waratahs to replace Brett Sheehan who started with the Reds then joined the Waratahs and has now signed with the Force to replace Josh Valentine because he was sick of being understudy to Luke Burgess who started at the Brumbies but is still with the Waratahs. And you wonder why the Wallabies struggle to find a replacement for George Greegan who was always a Brumby.

Five-Eighth

Day Light - The Rolling Maul is sick to death of hearing how Matt Giteau is so far ahead of every other five-eighth in the country that Day Light is second. Well it's a bout time Light was given a chance with the Wallabies to show what he can do. Let's face it, Giteau is a road block and his hogging of the five-eighth role is preventing other players from shining, and no player shines more than Day Light.

Inside Centre (Second Five-Eighth)

Tom Carter - The Waratahs search for a battering ram to replace Nathan Grey seemed over when Tom Carter put his head down and charged headfirst into a few Kiwi forwards. The old Sydney University combination with Daniel Halangahu seemed the solution to the Waratah's try scoring woes, and a couple of solid wins set up season glory. Alas it all came to nought. Ugly wins became ugly losses and by the South African trip Kurtley Beale replaced Carter who was relegated to glorified water boy duties. Three straight wins in South Africa and Carter may find he has to go to the ends of the earth (ie Brisbane) just to get a game.

Outside Centre

Morgan Turinui - Turinui was a shock signing for the Reds for the 2007 season and played well enough (admittedly in the now defunct ARC) to earn a call up to the Wallabies for the World Cup later that year. In 2008 he was average but good enough for Australia A, and in 2009 he didn't play a game for anybody.

Wingers

Cameron Shephard - Shephard was the Super 14s second highest try scorer in 2009 with 7. Yet he only played about 3 matches in between various injuries. At that rate he should have scored about 30 tries and would have ensured that instead of losing most of their matches by 1 or 2 points the Force would have finished on top of the table.

Clyde Rathbone - Rathbone is the most consistent player to have ever played Super 14. Consistently injured that is. His grand tally over two seasons amounts to about 2 starts and 2 runs off the bench. In those matches he showed impressive speed for a guy in alternately a moon boot, on crutches and in traction. It looks like Rathbone won't be offered a contract in 2010 which is a shame because the Rolling Maul will have to put some effort into finding another winger of the season (not to mention prop, hooker and number 8).

Fullback

Sam Norton-Knight - Throughout all the succes, failure and boring bits in between that made up the Waratahs early and mid-season the one constant was that Norton-Knight could be relied upon to kick the ball out on the full, off the edge of his boot or run straight into a wall of defenders and lose the ball. The flattest of flat track bullies (he tends to have blinders against the Reds, Cheetahs, Higlanders etc) Norton-Knight did the honourable thing before going to South Africa and injured himself so that Lachlan Turner could take his place. Scarily Norton-Kinght considers his best position to be five-eighth and that's why he signed with the Cardiff Blues. Meanwhile the Waratahs signed Drew Mitchell. There's nothing ugly about that win.