He had ultimately played in at least 7 of the 9 matches. At the end of the season Te Whata was awarded a gold medal, which was presented to him by Mr. W. Pascoe of Auckland “for the best all-round player” of the Australian tour. In the meantime he had returned to Auckland where he joined the Fire Brigade rugby league club who had recently joined Auckland’s first grade competition. Te Whata was to play alongside his Māori teammates George Gardiner, B Pitman, and Moses Yeats in the side to play on 8 July against City Rovers. Towards the end of the season on September 20 he was selected for the Auckland Provincial team to play the touring New South Wales side. They were beaten 21–20 on the Auckland Domain in front of 5,500. Te Whata was then selected to play in a combined New Zealand and New South Wales team to play against the touring ‘Australian’ side (New South Wales in reality). This team became known as “Australiasia” and because of an unsurprising lack of combination were thrashed in both matches they played against some of the best players in the world. They were composed of seven Auckland club players including Te Whata and six players from Australia. On the Auckland Domain before 12,000 spectators Te Whata’s Australasian team was beaten by New South Wales 65 to 27, though he did score three tries for the ‘home’ side. Te Whata’s first try came after he broke away with Nelson Bass and Johnson, the second when he broke away with Bert Avery “scoring brilliantly”, and the third in the second half when the match became very loose. Both teams had a player ordered off (Wally Somers and Alf O'Connor), and lost a player through injury (Dick Vest and George Davidson) thus finishing with 11 men aside. The same two teams met on September 29 in Taumarunui however the score line was even more lopsided and the newspaper headline which said it was a “High Scoring Match” was not exaggerating. The New South Wales team winning by the incredible score of 87 to 16 in front of 2,000 spectators. Te Whata contributed 4 points as he converted 2 tries. At the start of the 1923 season Bill Te Whata attempted to be reinstated into the rugby union ranks. He appeared before the New Zealand Rugby Union Executive to state his case on May 23. In what was to become a somewhat infamous case that was widely reported in newspapers throughout New Zealand Te Whata admitted to receiving money to play rugby league.