{"id":514753,"date":"2026-03-02T23:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514753\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:10:09","slug":"three-australians-dominate-poty-voting-as-force-no-10-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/514753\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Australians dominate POTY voting as Force No.10 rises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> round three votes are in for the Player of the Year award, with two Australians staking their claim as genuine contenders for the end-of-season award.<\/p>\n

The Brumbies<\/a> continued their unbeaten 2026 season to date with a narrow win over the Blues, as barnstorming loose-forward Charlie Cale<\/a> crossed the white line for his fifth try of the season.<\/p>\n

Cale\u2019s performance won him four POTY votes, taking him to the top of the leaderboard with 17 votes after three rounds, as Max Jorgensen<\/a> was on the bye with the Waratahs.<\/p>\n

Simon Cron\u2019s Force<\/a> side got their first win of the season against Moana Pasifika<\/a> in Pukekohe on Friday, where Wallabies first-five Ben Donaldson<\/a> led his team to an important victory.<\/p>\n

Donaldson didn\u2019t start the game, though, with his mouthguard notifying the doctor that the Force first-five must undergo an HIA test.<\/p>\n

He made it onto the pitch during the opening ten minutes, where he then went on to set up a number of tries and claim maximum POTY votes from that game.<\/p>\n

Donaldson\u2019s eight votes from Pukekohe elevated him to a total of sixteen, in second place behind Cale.<\/p>\n

Jorgensen and Moana Pasifika captain Miracle Faiilagi<\/a> sit in third place, equal with 15 votes, while a trio of players are three points behind in fourth place.<\/p>\n

Highlanders<\/a> co-captain Timoci Tavatavanawai<\/a> has snuck up the leaderboard to twelve votes, alongside New Zealand-born Vailoni Ekausi and All Black midfielder Quinn Tupaea<\/a>, who are also in fourth-equal on twelve votes.<\/p>\n

Reds<\/a> captain Fraser McReight<\/a> has made his way up the leaderboard to eleven votes, despite the Brisbane-based Super Rugby Pacific franchise having only played two out of the first three rounds.<\/p>\n

All Blacks<\/a> speedster Caleb Clarke<\/a> was the highest voted individual from the Canberra round three matchup, putting him on ten votes for the season, the same as Brumbies captain Ryan Lonergan.<\/p>\n

Here is how Round three was voted:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe captains and head coaches of both teams nominate their top three players from the opposing team each week, allocating three votes, two votes, and one vote, respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moana Pasifika v Western Force<\/p>\n

8 \u2013\u00a0Ben Donaldson (FOR)<\/p>\n

5 \u2013\u00a0Vailoni Ekausi (FOR)<\/p>\n

4 \u2013\u00a0Miracle Faiilagi (MOA)<\/p>\n

3 \u2013\u00a0Semisi Tupou Ta\u2019eiloa (MOA), Jonathan Taumateine<\/a> (MOA)<\/p>\n

2 \u2013\u00a0Mac Grealy (FOR), Carlo Tizzano<\/a> (FOR)<\/p>\n

1 \u2013\u00a0George Bridge (FOR), Solomon Alaimalo (MOA), Lalomilo Lalomilo<\/a> (MOA)<\/p>\n

Queensland Reds v Highlanders<\/p>\n

8 \u2013\u00a0Fraser McReight (QLD)<\/p>\n

5 \u2013\u00a0Tim Ryan (QLD)<\/p>\n

4 \u2013\u00a0Timoci Tavatavanawai (HIG)<\/p>\n

3 \u2013\u00a0TK Howden (HIG), Lucas Casey<\/a> (HIG), Carter Gordon<\/a> (QLD)<\/p>\n

2 \u2013\u00a0Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (QLD)<\/p>\n

1 \u2013\u00a0Ethan de Groot (HIG), Will Stodart<\/a> (HIG)<\/p>\n

6 \u2013\u00a0Frank Lomani (FJI)<\/p>\n

5 \u2013\u00a0Jordie Barrett (HUR)<\/p>\n

4 \u2013\u00a0Peter Lakai (HUR)<\/p>\n

3 \u2013\u00a0Tuidraki Samusamuvodre (FJI), Brayden Iose<\/a> (HUR)<\/p>\n

2 \u2013\u00a0Etonia Waqa (FIJ), Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula (FIJ)<\/p>\n

1 \u2013\u00a0Motikiai Murray (FJI), Isoa Nasilasila<\/a> (FJI), Mesake Vocevoce<\/a> (FJI), Asafo Aumua<\/a> (HUR), Cam Roigard<\/a> (HUR)<\/p>\n

6 \u2013\u00a0Leroy Carter (CHI)<\/p>\n

5 \u2013\u00a0Christian Lio-Willie (CRU)<\/p>\n

4 \u2013\u00a0Chay Fihaki (CRU)<\/p>\n

3 \u2013\u00a0Josh Jacomb (CHI), George Bell<\/a> (CRU), Taha Kemara<\/a> (CRU)<\/p>\n

2 \u2013\u00a0Luke Jacobson (CHI), Fletcher Newell<\/a> (CRU)<\/p>\n

1 \u2013\u00a0Josh Lord (CHI), Will Jordan<\/a> (CRU)<\/p>\n

ACT Brumbies v Blues<\/p>\n

6 \u2013\u00a0Caleb Clarke (BLU)<\/p>\n

4 \u2013\u00a0Charlie Cale (BRU), James Slipper<\/a> (CRU)<\/p>\n

3 \u2013\u00a0Cole Forbes (BLU), Rhys van Nek (BRU)<\/p>\n

2 \u2013\u00a0Sam Darry (BLU), Billy Pollard<\/a> (BRU), Finlay Christie<\/a> (BLU)<\/p>\n

1 \u2013\u00a0Anton Segner (BLU), Luke Reimer<\/a> (BRU), Dalton Papali\u2019i (BLU), Ryan Lonergan<\/a> (BRU)<\/p>\n

Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year Round Three<\/p>\n

17 \u2013\u00a0Charlie Cale (BRU)<\/p>\n

16 \u2013\u00a0Ben Donaldson (FOR)<\/p>\n

15 \u2013\u00a0Max Jorgensen (NSW), Miracle Faiilagi (MOA)<\/p>\n

12 \u2013\u00a0Timoci Tavatavanawai (HIG), Vaolini Ekuasi (FOR), Quinn Tupaea<\/a> (CHI)<\/p>\n

11 \u2013\u00a0Fraser McReight (QLD)<\/p>\n

10 \u2013\u00a0Ryan Lonergan (BRU), Caleb Clarke (BLU)<\/p>\n

Five others on nine votes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Super Rugby Pacific round three votes are in for the Player of the Year award, with two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-514753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}