News Jul-22-2025
This week the Major League Rugby End of Year Awards are being announced.
Written by Joe Harvey
The very best that the league has to offer have been recognized for their efforts on and off the field, with the Player of the Year, Forward of the Year, Back of the Year and Coach of the Year all being confirmed.
Read more: All-MLR team selections for the 2025 season
Selections were voted on by a group made up of MLR media, referees and stats specialists.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR | PAULA BALEKANA, NEW ENGLAND FREE JACKS
If it were not for Paula Balekana, you can question whether or not the New England Free Jacks would have lifted a third successive Major League Rugby title.
That is how important the wing is to his team.
In the Eastern Conference Final, the Fijian’s last-ditch tackle to dislodge the ball from the hands of Chicago Hounds center Bryce Campbell went a long way to hand New England momentum in the contest as they registered a 21-20 win.
In 2025 the 32-year-old was in electric form for Ryan Martin’s team, scored 15 tries in 14 appearances and made 921 meters from 130 carries.
Such was Balekana’s unerring ability to have an impact on any game which he played, his coaches felt little choice but to build the wing abilities into the way they play.
“He’s been crucial,” Ryan Martin, New England head coach, said ahead of the Championship Final. “We’ve made a high priority around maximizing his involvement in our team.
“There’s no hiding the fact that we design a lot of our strike plays around what he can bring for us.
“We just need him to express his personality on the field. He plays aggressively and we just back that.”
The wing joins Free Jacks teammates past and present, Beaudin Waaka, Jayson Potroz and Wayne van der Bank, in winning the award.
It is also the fourth year in a row that a New England player has taken the prize.
Part of the furniture for the entirety of the Free Jacks’ time as North American champions, anything that Balekana tried came off stupendously and has received the most coveted individual prize in the competition due to this.