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New England Free Jacks Beaudein Waaka Receives MLR Player of the Year Award

player OF THE YEAR: beaudein waaka, new england free jacks

Beaudein Waaka’s 2022 Major League Rugby campaign for the New England Free Jacks can only really be defined in one word, mesmeric.

From the team’s opening round to losing the Eastern Conference Final to Rugby New York at Veterans Memorial Stadium, the New Zealander guided his team superbly from fly-half, his attacking flair a major driving force to the team’s successes this season.

As the Free Jacks’ playmaker, Waaka helped the team he has played for since their inaugural season in 2020 to the playoffs for the first time in their history, as well as on the longest winning streak in MLR history to date.

Now back home in New Zealand ahead of a move to Japan to play for the Kobelco Steelers, the 28-year-old says he was surprised to learn that he was the MLR Player of the Year for the 2022 season.

“I was a little bit shocked to be honest,” he said. “In most rugby environments I have been in, it is normally a player out of the final that gets selected as MVP [Most Valuable Player].”

“There was chat going around that the chances of myself picking up the award, I thought it couldn’t be true.”

Pulling the strings

Part of what makes Waaka’s impressive season all the more impressive is that this is the first time in several years that the kiwi has played fly-half.

During his time in MLR to date, the 28-year-old has been utilized at full-back, with Tadhg Leader and Harrison Boyle the players entrusted with the No.10 jersey in New England.

Having been seen sparingly in the playmaker position in recent years, Waaka credits the belief of his coaches in his transition to fly-half, as well as allowing the squad being as competitive as they were across the 2022 campaign.

“The coaching group that came on board really did a hell of a job selecting the right players in the right positions,” Waaka said.

“For me, it has been a number of years since I have led a team around. Playing a bit of it last season, and coming into this year, I have found the love for the position again.

“It is credit to Scott Mathie who was on the phone with me in the preseason and was like ‘I want you as my 10, get ready as a 10, you are going to be playing 10’.

“I pulled up some old footage of myself playing 10 and people I have looked up to and inspired me. I have had to get the feel for that position again and heading into this season was quite enjoyable with a good team around me.”

After watching clips of his contemporary, Beauden Barrett, and All Blacks legend Dan Carter, for large parts of the season Waaka was unplayable.

Able to unlock every defense he came up against with an expansive kicking game that brought his teammates into play, as well as that ability to break the line himself, his skills honed with the New Zealand Sevens team on the HSBC World Series, it was definitely a year to remember.

Starting for 15 of the 16 games that he played in 2022, from fly-half Waaka registered seven tries for himself, kicked 42 conversions, 10 penalty kicks, beat 16 defenders with ball in hand and even kicked the ball 120 times in play.

It all added up to Scott Mathie’s Free Jacks being the number one overall seed in the competition, hosts of the Eastern Conference Final and having five players littered across the All-MLR First, Second and Honorable Mentions XVs.

But for all the achievements, hosting the Championship Final in New England would not happen.

Losing out to New York in the Eastern Conference Final 16-24, it would be their noisy neighbors down the east coast that ultimately won the competition a week later at Red Bull Arena.

While it didn’t end the way the team wanted, their fly-half only has fond memories of his most recent season in Boston.

“It was probably one of my most enjoyable seasons with any rugby team,” Waaka said. “Just the way the boys and management all connected with each other.

“Every Monday we used to go out as a team for breakfast and enjoy everybody’s company and dish out awards from the week before, like Back of the Week and Top Tackler of the Week.

“It was one of those seasons where I look back on it and I see how all those little things really helped shape us and made us be where we are.

“Unfortunately, we fell short in that Eastern Conference Final to New York, but they were a good team at the end of the day. All credit to them.”

Completely absorbing every time he took to the field, Waaka will certainly be missed in 2023. Named as New England’s Player of the Year also at the start of July, the New Zealander was quoted as saying “I’ll be back”.

Hopefully not a reference to a 1980s sci-fi movie, you certainly hope that in the years to come Waaka will be back causing damage in MLR at some stage in the future.

On Thursday of last week MLR announced the All-MLR First, Second and Honorable Mention teams, linked here. Additional end of season awards including Forward and Back of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year are to be announced by MLR throughout the week.

Written by Joe Harvey | Photos by Getty Images