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Kurtley Beale has targeted a return to the Wallabies team in the Rugby Championship and says he’s ready to fight for the No.15 jersey with Andrew Kellaway.
Speaking on the Gold Coast on Monday, where the Wallabies unveiled their First Nations kit for the second Test against England in Brisbane on Saturday night, Beale said he was progressing well in his comeback from injury after being run into the ground while playing in France.
Beale was brought into the Wallabies set up for the Spring Tour in November last season and has now returned home to join the Wallabies and the Waratahs from next season. He hasn’t been able to run for five months due to a serious hamstring injury.
“I’m still out injured. I’ll get a program sorted, checking out some scans today and will rip into some training in Sydney and put my best foot forward later in the year,” said Beale, a veteran of 95 Tests.
Beale expects to be contending for a a jersey again in the late August or ealry September Tests against the Springboks for the matches against New Zealand to follow.
His path to a return eased slightly due to Tom Banks’ horrible broken arm suffered in the first Test, but Kellaway and Jordan Petaia are both highly rated.
Kellaway took over from Banks in Perth and is expected to retain the No.15 in Brisbane.
Beale told reporters he was impressed by Kellaway and relished the challenge presented by the Rebels star.
“I’m a competitive bloke, stubborn in my own ways to try and push and fight for a position.
“No doubt, Kellaway stepped up, I thought he did brilliantly I think those couple of classy touches, that try for Jordy, those hands were very silky. He’s been in and around the group, he’s steady and he’s succeeding but I’ll be doing everything I can to create an environment and the competition to make it better.
“Like a lot of the other guys who have come in, they’ve set the bar high and that’s how we want it, we want to keep pushing ourselves to be the best because we’re playing the best – the Springboks, All Blacks and we’ve got a big task ahead with England on the weekend.”
Beale believes he needs a good run of eight weeks to get the volume of training he needs into his legs.
He gives the impression that he’s happy to be home in the care of Australian High Perfromance environments.
“The Top 14 was a bit of a slog. You’re constantly on, your body’s kind of disrespected in that regard because the Frenchies just roll you out each week without understanding the long-term effects, hence probably why the injury happened.
Kurtley Beale poses for a photo during the Wallabies Indigenous Jersey Launch at the Jellurgal Aboriginal Cultural Centre on July 04, 2022 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
”I had 10 games straight there straight after the spring tour. It was quite a heavy load.”
Beale was boosted by his Wallabies recall in November, where he played against England and Wales.
“When you step away from the game in Australia but also the Wallaby jersey, it’s obviously a special honour and whilst I felt I could still give back to the game at that level, from my performances playing in Europe, it lit the fire,” said Beale.
“Dave was very transparent in terms of what he needed from me and where I needed to be to be able to achieve further honours.
“He made it very clear for me. It’s a young group, I’m one of the eldest now. But there’s a responsibility there that I have to the guys around me and the coaching staff and just playing my part to make sure we’re all getting the best out of each other.
“I think Dave always has that environment for you. He’s a calm, collected guy and he gets the best out of you by having that individual personal touch and I think you saw that in the performance on the weekend – the guts, the character just came out of the guy.
“They were led well, they were calm, there was no panic and the guys got the job done and you want to be a part of that. You do feel there’s something brewing here and, for me, towards the backend of my career now you want to try and be involved those moments because you don’t know when the last one will be.”
Many thought Beale’s time might be up after the 2019 World Cup but he’s keen on going around again next year, saying he always had one eye on the Wallabies jersey.
“I’ve always said another World Cup would be nice, obviously after the disappointment in Japan. Bledisloe? It could be the last, so those are the things you want to be waking up for.”