For 80 minutes on Saturday at Allianz Stadium, Dan McKellar and Stephen Larkham’s friendship will be put on hold.
But for a brief moment on Friday, they were able to sit back and reflect on their friendship and the road that’s led them to this place.
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The pair traded stories at Randwick Rugby's annual lunch ahead of next month's Shute Shield opener.
McKellar began his Super Rugby coaching career under Larkham and the legendary Laurie Fisher in 2014, returning to Canberra after a brief stint with Tuggeranong.
For the next decade, the two would replace each other as Brumbies coaches, following similar coaching paths.
McKellar took over in 2018 as Larkham focused on his assistant coaching role with Michael Cheika and the Wallabies before the legendary flyhalf headed to Ireland.
Four years later, McKellar was doing the same under Dave Rennie, with Larkham heading home with valuable lessons learnt from Munster.
Now, McKellar will face Larkham and the Brumbies for the first time outside of a trial match, and the two were glowing about each other’s resumes and qualities as coaches.
“There's plenty of history with myself down in Canberra. The reality is I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for Bernie and Lord (Laurie Fisher) back in 2013,” McKellar told the audience.
“…There's not too many great players who've become great coaches. He's certainly been able to break the mould there.
“He's calm, composed, coached at an international level and has a track record of producing outstanding programs.
“You would have been here despite me or Laurie,” Larkham insists.
“I think you would have found your way into a role like this, whether it's here or in Brisbane or the top job in Australia with the Wallabies. You are an outstanding coach.
“…When we brought Dan into the Brumbies, we said that we wanted to have the best maul in the competition and then Dan went about designing that and building that. It ended up being the best maul in world rugby to the point where every team around the world basically copied the Brumbies maul and that all came from Dan back in the day.
They were then complimentary of each other’s team and the growth they had seen under their tutelage.
McKellar was glowing in how the once ‘rolling maul’ reliant Brumbies had transformed into serious threats with the ball in hand in the back three.
“When I was there, Tom Banks was full-back, and (Tom) ‘Wrighty’ was on the wing, and he’s really developed his game, and he's got incredible vision and touch and feel,” he notes.
“You’ve got the speed on the outside of it and there's the obvious physicality and forward pack that will come with any Brumbies team.
Meanwhile, Larkham was impressed with how McKellar was getting the best out of a team stacked with talent on paper but not necessarily with the results to show.
“There is a lot more variation this year compared to last year and I'm not saying anything about this year or what happened last year, but there is really good cohesion in the team,” he notes.
“Dan's very good at selecting the players and a good team and I think there's a bit of consistency with the selection this year with those players.
“…They've got a pretty complete team this year.”
Like friendships, pleasantries were put on hold for what is referred to as ‘Tah Week’ in the nation’s capital.
“You actually rang me when you got this job and tried to apologise that you're going to the enemy because that's the enemy up the road,” Larkham joked.
“…I'm not surprised that the Waratahs got looked after by Rugby Australia,” he also remarked after praising McKellar’s squad.
One thing is for sure: Saturday’s derby is far from a normal game, even for two friends who have become coaching rivals.
“You'd like to say it like any other (game), of course, but that'd be bulls***,” McKellar said.
“These are the sorts of games you're privileged to be involved in, whether it's a player, a coach, a physio, whatever it might be.”
