MONDAY MAUL

With a doddle against the Barbarians on Wednesday night all that is left of the Wallabies' end-of-season tour, it is time to reveal the Monday Maul awards.

Drum roll, please …

Wallabies player of the tour:Matt Giteau. No wonder the French want to offer him the Eiffel Tower to play in their competition. His goalkicking, midfield kicking and excellent options justified Jonathan Davies's comment that he was in front of Daniel Carter as the world's best No. 10.

Then followed: Stirling Mortlock, until he was sent into space in a sickening collision with his Welsh counterpart Jamie Roberts; Stephen Moore, who established himself as close to the world's best hooker; Nathan Sharpe, Peter Hynes, George Smith, Benn Robinson and Richard Brown.

Thanks for coming: The most dedicated trainer award goes to Brett Sheehan and Peter Kimlin, who were used as tackle bags for six weeks, without ever threatening for a Test spot.

Best team performance: Against England at Twickenham.

Worst team performance: Against Italy at Padova, until Quade Cooper fixed it all up in the final minutes with a solo try that should have been called back because of obstruction.

Best opponents:Wales. Sure New Zealand beat the Wallabies as well, but they did that on the back of a very dodgy refereeing performance.

Most rousing moment: When Moore heard on the Twickenham loudspeaker that he was the official man of the match. His reaction was as if he hadn't heard right, until he was swamped by teammates after a critic-crunching scrummaging performance.

Most startled looks:When the Wallabies travelled from Venice to London and were reading the UK Sunday newspapers giving it to the Australian scrum, in particular prop Al Baxter. There was a lot of rustling of papers but Baxter enjoyed the experience, even keeping a copy of one of the articles, because it had a terrific photograph of a scrum. Once a prop, always a prop.

Funniest moment:Before the England-Australia Test, referee Marius Jonker produced his lucky rand coin so that the captains could toss to determine who kicked off. The only problem was that the toss was so high, the coin landed on top of one of the rafters and wouldn't come down. After minutes wasted unsuccessfully trying to retrieve the coin, a replacement was brought out for the toss so that the match could get under way.

Strangest look:The stare down the table at a Hong Kong press conference from New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew when his Australian counterpart John O'Neill suggested they may play a Bledisloe Cup Test in Moscow next year. While O'Neill was at his mischievous best, Tew was aghast, and immediately tried to put the brakes on them heading to the Kremlin. This moment came after O'Neill was badgered by the touring Australian media about having a Bledisloe Cup match in Las Vegas, so that a few of us could fine-tune our Texas Hold 'Em skills. O'Neill seemed receptive.

Worst solo performance: Easy. There's only one candidate. Ireland referee Alan Lewis made a complete botch-up of the Hong Kong Test when he gave the All Blacks an armchair ride, and the horror continued in Cardiff when he again whistled the Wallabies off the park. As in Hong Kong, Lewis missed forward passes and offside defensive players, while irritating the Wallabies by not communicating with them as he continually found fault with them at scrum time. Lewis is not up to international standard.

Players to watch:Cooper, David Pocock and James O'Connor.

Favourite press conference:The 18-year-old O'Connor left Sydney explaining that his task of looking after the Wallabies team mascot could work in his favour, because he had heard that carrying a stuffed kangaroo may entice some French women. How did the novice fare in Paris? Absolutely no idea. Then again, what happens on tour stays on tour.