Nic White says he never showed his full talent in a gold jersey but with a much-evolved game from his time at Exeter, the nippy halfback is desperate to show what he can do and crack the Wallabies’ World Cup squad.
White has been playing in France and England since the end of 2015 but was back training with the Wallabies squad last week after agreeing to a contract with Rugby Australia that will see him join a yet-to-decided Super Rugby franchise next year.
The 29-year-old former Brumby played 22 Tests and between 2013 and 2015, and with a telling bench cameo, helped Australia knock over the All Blacks prior to them leaving for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
But White missed the World Cup squad due to Michael Cheika only taking two halfbacks - Will Genia and Nick Phipps - to the tournament.
Having agreed to join Montpellier at the start of 2015, the favourite son of the Maitland Blacks played with Jake White in France for two seasons before moving across to top English side Exeter.
White has been a star performer for the Chiefs but when an opportunity arose to come back to Australia in 2020 under the “other” Giteau Law - which allows him to play for the Wallabies immediately - the no.9 jumped at the chance.
Not just because making a World Cup would be a “dream come true”, but because White says he has unfinished business in the Wallabies jersey.
"That’s the biggest opportunity,” White told RUGBY.com.au.
"I really feel like I left and hadn’t showed the best of myself at all. And that was probably the hardest thing to live with after I went.
"I don’t think I showed the best of myself at all in the Wallabies jersey before I left. Through no fault but my own.
"But in going to Exeter I found a way I wanted to play and ways to show what I can do on the field, and they’ve really helped me.
"I was very lucky that I joined a successful side and that helped me grow as a player and a person.”
White debuted for the Brumbies in 2011 and was a key pillar of the Jake White game that saw the ACT team make the final in 2013.
White debuted for the Wallabies later that year under Ewen McKenzie, and played regularly for him in the next two winters.
But in early 2015, he made a call to go to Europe to grow his game.
"When I left after the last one, I was only 25 at the time and ideally the plan was to go away for two or three years and play really good footy and come back,” White said.
"Unfortunately it didn’t really work out all that well at Montpellier for me, but I was fortunate enough to get a gig at Exeter and I feel like I have grown as a person and as a player there,
“They’d won the premiership the year before I got there, and though we haven’t raised the trophy in the last two years, we have been in the final twice and getting that little bit closer to cracking Europe.
"I initially signed a one-plus-one, hoping that after my first year that maybe I get a call (from Australia) at some point in that first year, offering a chance to come back. But that wasn’t to be so I played my second year and that’s just finished up.”
White also signed a two-year extension last year but when Rugby Australia high performance boss Ben Whitaker dropped by on last year’s Spring Tour and posed the question “would you ever come home?”, White answered in the affirmative and a few calls with Michael Cheika followed.
“But when this all came about, in order to be eligible for the World Cup, I had to ask for a release for the second year of the contract,” White said.
"Which (Exeter coach) Rob (Baxter) couldn’t have been any better about. I spoke to him and he said “mate, that’s what rugby is all about, guys playing at the absolute pinnacle”.
"And as a club they take pride in developing guys who play for their country, and in my case, making me a far better player than I was.
"As soon as that conversation started happening, gee whiz, my eyes lit up. That would be everything to me. The chance of going to a World Cup, you are not going to leave any stone unturned. I was very fortunate that everyone at the Exeter side of things were so good and made it easy for me.”
With one season still to play at Exeter before he returns for good, White is yet to nail down where he will end up in Super Rugby.
"I am in no real rush to find a club at this point, I was kind of thinking teams and squads will change so much before then so I have some time up my sleeve there and not being rushed to make any decisions,” White said.
"I’ll have a couple of meetings and see where we end up."
White says the move to Exeter has been the catalyst for a big shift in his game, that allows him to run and pass far more than when he was last playing in Australia, for White at the Brumbies.
Where the White-era Brumbies played a forward-based, box-kicking strategy, the Chiefs are a high-possession team who wear opponents down with sustained attack.
“My passes per game would be far higher than back here,” White said.
"I just felt you have to play to the way you’re told to play, and a lot of people thought that the way we were playing in Canberra in my early years, that was it and that was all I could do. That was frustrating.
“People back here may not know a lot about how Exeter play, it’s very much ball in hand. We have the highest possession and ball-in-play time than anyone in Europe.
"Being at Exeter I have found a way to play the game I think should be played, and I am really, really enjoying my rugby. I am passing the ball more than anywhere I’ve ever played.
"I have gone from passing the ball 50-60 times a game to more around the 100 mark."
White laughs his critics have gone the full 180 degrees.
"It’s funny I have gone from being told I was boring for kicking too much here, to being told in England I am boring for holding onto the ball too much. I guess you have to laugh,” he said.
White says he’s enjoyed his time back training with the Wallabies and says he’s confident Aussie rugby can turn around its fortunes from last season.
"It’s not far away. I think we are going through a bit of a cycle,” he said.
"We have had a lot of young players and going into camp this week it’s clear to see we have so many young players. We just need to be patient with these guys. There’ve been some tough times but things come together pretty quickly. They’ve got good experience under their belt now.
"But also, the times of just having a couple of nations at the top of the pecking order are almost gone. Anyone can beat anybody. Fiji beat France last year. That is just unheard of. It’s just getting tighter and tighter.”
White says the fact he is facing a very tough fight to make the Wallabies squad for the World Cup - with he, Genia, Phipps, Jake Gordon and Joe Powell potentially competing for two spots - is a good sign.
"There’s plenty of good nines all over the country, so that’s only going to serve the jersey well,” he said.
"If we can get depth across every position and everyone fighting for every position at every session, it’s just going to drive the standard higher and higher. That serves the Wallabies and that’s the only thing that matters."
