Israel Folau given four games to prove he deserves centre spot by NSW Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson

WARATAHS star Israel Folau’s days at outside centre could be numbered with NSW desperate to reverse their poor start to the Super Rugby season.

Israel Folau’s days at outside centre could be numbered.

ISRAEL Folau has just four games to prove to Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson that he belongs at outside centre, or else he’ll be returned to his more familiar fullback role.

Gibson revealed he and Folau had reached an agreement to review the star’s best position in the team after round seven, when NSW has a bye week.

While Folau spent all of last season at No.13 for the Tahs, he played every game for the Wallabies at fullback under Michael Cheika, who also used Folau at No.15 for the three years he was in charge of NSW.

“I’ve made it pretty clear that we’re going to give him until round seven,” Gibson said.

“We’ll both sit down in the bye week and talk about where we think we’re at.

“So it is an experiment.

Folau is crunched by a couple of Sharks.

“We sat down and discussed, ‘Let’s give that a trial period and see how you go’.

“He’s still got a few rounds to go.”

The key four games come against the Brumbies at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, followed by the Rebels, Crusaders and defending champion Hurricanes.

COACH: ‘the Waratahs are beating the Waratahs’

While Folau had a quiet start to this season, he had one of his best games as an outside centre last weekend in the 37-14 loss to the Sharks in Durban, scoring both his side’s tries while making 126 metres from 14 runs, two line breaks, three tackle busts and three offloads.

“Israel I thought had his best game at centre, he had a huge involvement, a huge touch count which is something we’ve been wanting to achieve with him over the last two rounds,” Gibson said.

“He had a major impact in the game and that’s a real positive for him, he went searching for the ball and I think he’s starting to get to grips positionally with how he gets himself into games.”

Israel Folau’s days at outside centre could be numbered.

NSW’s fullback Andrew Kellaway has recovered from a shoulder knock in the Sharks game and will be fit to take on the Brumbies, and it will be as important for him to perform over the next month.

“Having the players in the right positions, that relies on everyone performing in their position, so if we don;t have a fullback that’s playing well it’s very easy to put Folau back there,” Gibson said.

“Then we have to find an outside centre, so it has a domino effect.”

With one win from three games and sitting fourth in the Australian conference (15th overall), NSW is desperate to beat rivals the Brumbies and could welcome back the cavalry with five-eighth Bernard Foley, lock Will Skelton and No.8 Jed Holloway among a host of stars set to return.

“Bernard is going to train tomorrow which is a positive, it will be a wait and see though,” Gibson said.

Andrew Kellaway is the incumbent NSW fullback.

“With these things you’re supposed to exercise daily and then see how you feel post-exercise, and by all reports he’s improving.

“His mood, his cognitive functioning is much better.

“Jed’s available, so is Ned Hannigan, so we’ve got a fair few returning.”

Gibson said conceding 92 points while failing to get a single competition point in their two-game African tour has not fractured the team.

“The squad’s tight, we’re still together, there’s certainly no splintering,” Gibson said.

“We’re very determined to make sure we get our campaign back on track.

“You’ve got to win your conference, it makes the Australian derbies more important and then winning away from home against teams not in your conference - we had an opportunity to do that in Africa and came up empty-handed.

“Now our attention turns to making sure we do well at home.

“The Brumbies look fairly strong at set-piece, that’s been their hallmark for four or five years.”

Originally published as Israel Folau given four games to prove he deserves centre spot by NSW Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson