From Wallaby starter to Tahs A: Isaac Kailea’s 202-day road to Waratahs’ 23

Isaac Kailea didn’t look out of place against two-time defending Rugby World Cup champions South Africa in Brisbane on August 10. After scoring a try in his maiden Test start in Australia’s hard-fought 40-29 win over Georgia in July, Kailea was again selected for the First XV.

Kailea, 24, started ahead of the Wallabies’ all-time Test record-holder James Slipper at Suncorp Stadium and had some telling involvements in a 40-minute appearance. But fast forward to the opening round of this year’s Super Rugby Pacific season, and the prop wasn’t named at all.

After making the move north from the Melbourne Rebels, coach Dan McKellar couldn’t find a place in the NSW Waratahs’ 23 for Kailea ahead of their clash with the Highlanders at Allianz Stadium. The Wallaby was instead picked for Waratahs A against the Brumby Runners.

The Tahs won that match in truly dramatic fashion, with replacement Siosifa Amone scoring a last-minute try, with the conversion handing the hosts a one-point win. After a bye week, McKellar has given Kailea a chance by naming the Test prop on the bench for round three.

Kailea will look to make an impact off the pine alongside Amone, while Angus Bell and Taniela Tupou get first crack in the run-on side. On the sidelines of Allianz Stadium, Kailea spoke about the disappointment of not being selected in the round one side.

“I guess that’s just the difficult job that the coaches have, they can have the option to rotate between all of the props really.

“Sifa had a really good game off the bench last week and we’ve got guys like Adrian Brown who’s stuck behind a bit, behind guys like [Angus] Belly and myself but he’s training really well and he’s quite a solid player.

“Then obviously we’ve got Tom Lambert who was on the Australia A tour so there’s a lot of talent there.

“I was a bit disappointed but then I just thought to myself, I’m in a new environment, it’s probably taken me a bit longer to get used to the team and the system and all that.

“I know Tom [Lambert] had a really good pre-season so I wasn’t too fussed. Obviously I wanted to play, the disappointment was there for a couple of days, and then luckily the boys that weren’t selected for that Highlanders game, we had a game against the Runners team.

“I was pretty happy to get some game time in regardless.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Kailea had emerged as a new-found gem within Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies set-up, with the front-rower also featuring off the bench in Tests against some of the world’s best rugby teams, those being Argentina, New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland.

But it’s just the nature of McKellar’s new-look Waratahs squad that Kailea will be locked in a week-to-week battle to even crack the matchday lineup. Bell and Tupou are both regarded as world-class props, and the squad as a whole boasts plenty of international talent.

“Not really a surprise, I think I’ll just sort of take it as it comes really,” Kailea added.

“It is competitive now, one less team, a lot more talent spread out amongst the Super teams so I think there’s guys all over that probably missed out on a couple of games here and there.

“Just where I can hopefully put my best foot forward this Friday and hopefully stick in the team.”