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Kurtley Beale emerges as prime contender to replace Bernard Foley as Waratahs' playmaker

Kurtley Beale with Bernard Foley. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Kurtley Beale is the frontrunner to fill the five-eighth hot seat as the NSW Waratahs prepare for life after Bernard Foley.

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With Foley, NSW’s most-capped No.10, among several senior figures to head overseas following this year’s World Cup, the Waratahs will enter the 2020 Super Rugby season seriously short on experienced playmakers.

But new coach Rob Penney isn’t fretting while conceding he will be relying “heaps” on Beale and Wallabies captain Michael Hooper to lead the new-look Tahs’ youngest squad in years.

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“Michael Hooper and Kurtley have certainly been the heart and soul here but for Australian rugby as well, with massive responsibility. I would envisage they would be desperate to make this team function as well as they can,” Penney said on Friday.

“So that’s why they are getting a bit of an extended break. Hopefully they are using that wisely, I am sure they are. They’ll come back excited to put boots on again.”

Beale is likely to start the season in the No.10 jumper he wore routinely – including as a teenager in the Waratahs’ 2008 final loss to the Crusaders – before Foley made the position his own under, firstly, Michael Cheika and then Penney’s predecessor and fellow Kiwi head coach Daryl Gibson.

Randwick rookie Will Harrison and one-time former Melbourne Storm NRL player Mack Mason are Penney’s other options to fill the all-important playmaker role.

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“We are pretty relaxed about that situation at the moment. We want to build from within and we want to give those boys our full backing,” Penney said.

In addition to Foley moving to Japan, the Waratahs have also lost fellow stalwarts Nick Phipps – meaning they’ll need a brand new halves pairing in 2020 – Sekope Kepu and Curtis Rona, while World Cup stars Adam Ashley-Cooper and Tolu Latu remain uncontracted.

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Still, Penney is refusing to believe 2020 will be a rebuilding year as he eyes Australian conference honours and a place in the finals.

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“You have got to go in believing. If you don’t have hope, then it’s hopeless,” he said.

“There’s a massive degree of excitement around what the future can look like, which is great and there’s a nice blend in the age profiles.

“There’s some youthful exuberance and some maturity that gives it a lovely balance. It’s very early doors but very, very positive about what the potential is like going forward.

“I think rebuilding can be a dangerous term. You can fall into a bit of a trap when you’re fundamentally trying to make excuses.”

– AAP

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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