Scott Fardy preparing to farewell Brumbies after remarkable late-blooming career

SCOTT Fardy will farewell Canberra in another final and with 96 Super Rugby games under his belt. Five years ago, nearing 30, he hadn’t yet played one.

SCOTT Fardy’s sentimental game isn’t strong. Not while there is still a job to do, anyway.

Fardy will potentially play his last game for the Brumbies on Friday night in Canberra when the ACT side meet the Hurricanes in the Super Rugby quarter-finals.

It will bring to an end the remarkable second chapter of Fardy, who arrived in Canberra in 2011 as a 27-year-old who’d never played a minute of Super Rugby.

He heads to Leinster in coming months as a 96-cap veteran, who not only proved himself as an outstanding Super Rugby flanker but won 39 Wallabies caps as well.

But while Friday night’s home final for the Brumbies represents “an” end, in Fardy’s mind it’s not “the” end.

QUARTER-FINAL: Hurricanes not taking Brumbies lightly

WALLABIES: Quade fade gives Kurtley chance to shine

“There’s no satisfaction in just making the finals really, so in my head I still have three games to go,” Fardy said.

Brumbies warrior Scott Fardy is hoping he has another three games with the club.

“I am not looking back too much. We have a job to do, so I am just looking ahead.”

Fardy has always been an eyes-forward kind of guy.

But for a long while, the tall forward from Sydney’s northern beaches found a Super Rugby career just out of reach.

While a dominant flanker for Warringah — Fardy won the 2008 Catchpole Medal — he went unused during stints at the Waratahs and the Western Force.

Fardy took himself to Japan instead and while playing for the Kamaishi Seawaves, he wondered if he’d ever get a chance to prove himself at home.

“You can’t really tell until you play it, but I knew if I could get a game I could play well (in Super Rugby),” Fardy said.

“I just needed a chance and luckily I got one.”

In 2011, with Jake White rebuilding the Brumbies from the ground-up, Fardy was offered the last spot on the roster for minimum wage.

He took it, of course, and in less than 18 months Fardy not only proved himself as a starter, he was selected for the Wallabies and played in a Super Rugby final.

“It was the last chance I had to play Super Rugby, for sure,” Fardy said.

“It was my last chance, like a lot of guys in this organisation who’d travelled from afar to get a crack.

“Canberra is always going to be a special place for me, for the rest of my life.

“It has changed me a lot over six seasons here and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I was given by the club and hopefully I have done them proud when I have pulled that jersey on.”

The Brumbies have made the Super Rugby finals every year since 2013 and guys like Fardy are the reason.

Driven to succeed by something far more powerful than just the generic expectation attached to a talented 19-year-old kid who is first picked in every rep team.

“You see a guy like Chris Alcock come here after a few different joints and flourish,” Fardy said.

“It attracts the weird bloke down here in Canberra. There’s no shortage of it down here in Canberra. Most blokes are a little bit strange. That’s the way they like them down here.

“No, look I am not sure what to put that (consistent success) down to, specifically. Some people think it is a small town thing, I am not sure about that. I think basically it is just getting the right guys into a joint, who will work hard and are prepared to play for each other. That’s what gets you places.”

The Brumbies brotherhood is what the Canberra men will rely on again on Friday night, particularly with one of their leading lights back in the huddle.

Christian Lealiifano returns to the Brumbies bench less than a year after learning he had cancer.

“It was a real shock last year with the diagnosis and fast-forward 11 months time and to have the guy back playing, after seeing what he’s been through and what his family been through. We have all kind of been on that ride with him,” Fardy said.

“He has been a fantastic influence around the group and his story just gives a bit of relevance to what we do, and how lucky everybody is.

“It’s been great for the team to have him back in the side.”

Originally published as Scott Fardy preparing to farewell Brumbies after remarkable late-blooming career