Fast-forward to 2025, and Fainga’a found himself re-considering his earlier position. After a five-season stint with the Brumbies and a year in Perth, Fainga’a had moved to France to play for Clermont. With a year left on his contract, the coach who gave him a debut at the Brumbies – Dan McKellar – was on the phone asking if he’d come home to play for the Waratahs. Dave Porecki had retired, opening up a spot.
The bitterness had receded, and with the chance to not only play under McKellar again, but re-ignite his Test career before the 2027 Rugby World Cup, Fainga’a accepted.
A decade late, Fainga’a is a Waratah, and he is stoked. The 30-year-old will run out for NSW against the Reds in a trial at Ballymore on Saturday, and in a few weeks, make a Super Rugby debut for NSW as well.
Fainga’a’s back-to-blue story is not an isolated one, either. The Waratahs squad in 2026 is littered with outstanding players who have been recruited back to their home state this season after initially being overlooked by the Tahs.
New captain Matt Philip, a former NSW under-20s skipper, had to move to Perth to debut and become a Wallaby. Pete Samu starred for Randwick and trialled with the Tahs in 2014, but left for New Zealand after missing a contract. Jack Debreczeni left for the Rebels in 2013, and Wallabies winger Harry Potter departed for Melbourne and then Leicester.
All are back in Sydney with distinguished CVs and set to make Waratahs debuts next month.
Matt Philip will lead the Waratahs in 2026.Credit: Peter Rae
Like Fainga’a, the past has been forgiven but not forgotten, given how much it shaped them as players. Unlike many Waratahs in the past who were recruited as first-pick junior talent and didn’t fulfil their potential via the armchair route, the prodigal sons of 2026 were instilled with the hunger that comes from rejection.
“I’ve always played with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder because of that, if I’m honest,” Philip said.
“That was obviously a very strong Waratahs team back in 2013-14, they won the comp. A part of me, definitely at the time, I was super frustrated, I would have loved to play in it.
“But I think I wouldn’t be where I am today without that kind of setback. It’s made me hungry my whole career. I always wanted to prove them wrong, not making it that early in my career and having to go about things the hard way.
Pete Samu left NSW and joined the Crusaders before becoming a Wallaby.Credit: Getty
“But I’m also really grateful to be here. I can see how lucky we are to be playing for the NSW Waratahs. This is the home of rugby in Australia.”
Samu was a rising star out of Melbourne who moved to Sydney in the hope of cracking the Waratahs, and was on the cusp after dominant seasons for Randwick in 2012 and 2013.
“That was definitely the aim,” Samu said. “I was lucky enough that I was part of the academy.
“I got asked to do a pre-season with the Tahs – Cheik was the coach – and I played a couple of pre-season games as well. It was 2014, the start of that year. I was fighting for the last contract spot, which went to Ben Volavola at the time. But yeah, it’s pretty cool to have this full circle moment.”
Samu’s next steps were good ones – he made his debut for the Crusaders – before Cheika righted his wrong and recruited him back to Australia to play for the Brumbies and the Wallabies.
Debreczeni played NSW Schools and was also in the academy, which was national but based at the Waratahs. The big-kicking No.10 also had to leave Sydney to get a start at the Rebels, and 13 years and seven clubs later, also accepted an offer from McKellar for a belated run in blue.
“To see a lot of other blokes come back home, and who are keen to put on that blue jersey and represent their state, yeah, it gives good vibes around the group,” Fainga’a said.
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Though a successful former Brumbies coach, McKellar has been at pains to say since taking over the Tahs last year that he doesn’t want to transplant the Canberra club’s style and culture. But there are definitely signs of some Brumbies’ DNA being spliced in. The Brumbies built their identity on being the discards of NSW, and the hunger that came with it.
McKellar has strategically sought to repatriate lost Tahs – many of them from the Brumbies. He also signed Warringah’s Test flanker Luke Reimer for next year, too.
“We want to be a club, an organisation – there’s no shortage of talent in New South Wales – where we retain and develop our best young players,” McKellar said.
“And we’ve got 40 players in the building that are passionate New South Welshmen, who want to play for the Waratahs from when they were a little boy. So that’s the vision. That’s where we want to get to.
“In the short term, in terms of recruitment, I wanted to go after a couple of things, and that’s guys who have won trophies, and guys that I see as genuine leaders of men. And Matty [Philip] is one of those. Pete Samu has won trophies.
“They’re all connected to the Waratahs. They’ve all come through the Waratahs academy and maybe went and played elsewhere. But they’re now back achieving a dream they had when they were in their late teens.”
Fainga’a is, in fact, loving being back in blue.
“[It’s] a proud moment to come back home and potentially put on that Waratahs jersey. I don’t only get to represent myself, but I get to represent my family and my state.”
