{"id":159889,"date":"2025-09-22T00:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T00:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159889\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T00:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T00:21:09","slug":"wallaby-hooker-leaving-france-with-new-rugby-australia-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159889\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallaby hooker leaving France with new Rugby Australia deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hooker Folau Fainga\u2019a<\/a> will reunite with Dan McKellar in a return from France<\/a> ahead of the World Cup and boost the Wallabies\u2019 set-piece stocks.<\/p>\n

The former ACT Brumbies<\/a> star and 38-Test Wallaby will play for the NSW Waratahs<\/a> next season after confirming a three-year deal on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old has been with Top 14<\/a> outfit ASM Clermont<\/a> Auvergne for two years after shifting from the Western Force<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Black Ferns captain Kennedy Tukuafu after defeat to Canada <\/p>\n

\"VideoBlack Ferns captain Kennedy Tukuafu after defeat to Canada <\/p>\n

He had previously served under McKellar in Canberra, with the experienced coach now pulling the strings at the Waratahs.<\/p>\n

Fainga\u2019a will effectively replace Dave Porecki<\/a>, who retired suddenly this year.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2027 showpiece in Australia, he\u2019ll add competition at Test level for Billy Pollard<\/a>, Matt Faessler<\/a>, Josh Nasser<\/a> and Brandon Paenga-Amosa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Waratahs is somewhere I started my professional\u00a0rugby\u00a0journey in the under-20s and to be coming back to work under Dan and play with some guys I know really well is something I\u2019m massively looking forward to,\u201d Fainga\u2019a said in a statement from the Waratahs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be closer to family is something I\u2019m grateful for as well after being away from them for nearly 10 years now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I have plenty to offer on and off the field and am looking forward to working hard and giving myself every opportunity to make a positive impact on Australian\u00a0rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKellar said it was a fine outcome after Porecki\u2019s \u201cunexpected\u201d retirement caught him by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to find someone of equal quality in a very short space of time, and we have done that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe (at the Brumbies) recruited Folau from Sydney Uni in 2017 and saw a dynamic hooker with strong set piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then we thought he was a player with the potential to grow and develop into a very good hooker and he has done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fainga\u2019a\u2019s signing comes as the Wallabies prepare to face New Zealand<\/a> at Auckland\u2019s Eden Park on Saturday without key backrower Rob Valetini.<\/p>\n

The Brumbies star was a late scratching from the touring party with a calf issue and has been replaced by the versatile Pete Samu.<\/p>\n

Valetini, who has won the John Eales<\/a> Medal as Australia\u2019s best Test player in the past two years, has struggled with injury this year and played just one Test during the British and Irish Lions<\/a> series, missing the lead-in match against Fiji<\/a> due to a calf injury.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies, already without Will Skelton<\/a>, have not won at Eden Park since 1986.<\/p>\n

They will host New Zealand in Perth a week after the Auckland<\/a> clash.<\/p>\n

Chasing their first title in 10 years, Australia<\/a> lead the Rugby Championship<\/a> on 11 points, one ahead of second-placed South Africa<\/a> and third-placed New Zealand with two rounds left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hooker Folau Fainga\u2019a will reunite with Dan McKellar in a return from France ahead of the World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-159889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}