It’s been a long wait for Dave Porecki. A long wait.
On Saturday afternoon, the 32-year-old will pull on the NSW No.2 jersey and run out for the Waratahs’ final trial match against the Brumbies in Bowral.
It will be a trial where NSW fans will see Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Taniela Tupou for the first time in blue, and watch new coach Dan McKellar roll out a star-laden team.
So far, so normal. But for Porecki, the trial will not only serve to wake up the lungs, it will also help purge an array of demons, dating all the way back to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
That disastrous campaign is, in effect, the last time Porecki played a game of footy. And not just play – as captain of the Wallabies for the last three games, Porecki also had a front-row seat at the awkward press conferences where Eddie Jones dodged and weaved about his future job in Japan.
But while everyone else in the Wallabies set-up – and supporters – used the 2024 season to dust off and move on, Porecki had to suffer through another year on the sidelines, courtesy of a chronic Achilles tendon injury.
Waratahs hooker David Porecki at training ahead of his return.Credit: Hugo Carr/Waratahs
It meant he was unable to help the Tahs fight through a wooden spoon season, and he missed the Wallabies’ rebuild under Joe Schmidt. But the extra torture for Porecki was not knowing if his injury was ever going to get better.
For more than half the year it showed no concrete signs of improvement and after multiple visits to multiple specialists, Porecki began to think his career may even be over.
“It’s a red flag when you are seeing a lot of different people and there are a lot of different eyes on it, and they are confused as to why it is not improving,” Porecki says.
“I potentially thought I just had developed a chronic injury that was never going to get better, and I didn’t really know what else there was to do. Maybe I am just gonna have a bad Achilles, where I can barely run.”
The problems for Porecki began when he developed Achilles tendonitis in the intense Wallabies training camps leading up to the World Cup. It was uncomfortable but manageable.
“That’s pretty standard; you are never going to be 100 per cent, so you just crack on,” he says.
Porecki trained and played through the pain, but as the tournament went on, and increasingly south, the veteran hooker found it would no longer improve after warming up. Sitting out was not a consideration, particularly after Porecki was appointed captain following an injury to Will Skelton following round one win over Georgia.
Porecki presumed a summer holiday would help fix everything, but after returning to pre-season training at NSW, the pain was worse and his Achilles stiffness was best in the morning and worst at night; the reverse of the normal tendonitis experience.
Porecki tried to play in a Waratahs trial against Melbourne but soon came off, worried his Achilles was going to rupture. And so began almost a year of confusion, uncertainty and frustration.
After a few weeks of no improvement, Porecki flew to Melbourne to see a specialist.
David Porecki watches on as Eddie Jones holds court at the World Cup.Credit: Getty Images
“She said it wasn’t tendonitis, it is an issue with your Achilles sheath,” Porecki recalls. “It’s hard to describe to you what it is, because I am still a bit like what actually is this? It is damage that has been caused by the original tendonitis, essentially.”
The relief of understanding the problem was offset by the fact it refused to heal, or respond well to any rehab. Confusingly, the uncertainty also kept a door ajar for Porecki’s return at any point – but eventually it became clear he wouldn’t make it back for the Waratahs.
“We stripped right back to the point where I was just walking up stairs, pain free,” Porecki says.
“It was almost you’d rather have a tear because then you know this is how we repair it and this is how long it will take.”
More specialist visits and flights to Melbourne followed, and at one point surgery overseas was even considered. But eventually Porecki and medical staff opted to start treating the injury aggressively with cortisone injections, which had been avoided until then because of the risk of rupturing the tendon.
“By this stage my calf had completely gone and that was making things worse,” Porecki says.
The injections didn’t work straight away, though, and it was only when a doctor proposed targeting certain areas around the Achilles that Porecki finally felt a difference.
“Immediately I was able to do a calf raise again,” he says. “I had a smile from ear to ear. It was the first time I had been able to do a calf raise in about six months pain free. I wasn’t even thinking about Wallabies, it was more, ‘How good, I can walk with my son pain free’.”
Porecki’s recovery now began in earnest. He’d missed the Waratahs’ season and the first months of the new Wallabies’ campaign, but stayed in touch with Schmidt and spent time around the squad where possible, to acclimatise for a potential return late in the year. Porecki attended a Wallabies camp in Canberra in October, but the important stuff in life got in the way of Porecki potentially joining the Wallabies on the spring tour.
He and wife Shani were welcoming twins in November and Porecki informed Schmidt that would be his priority. Charlie and Billie duly arrived when the Wallabies were in the UK.
Waratahs hooker David Porecki at training.Credit: Hugo Carr/Waratahs
It gave Porecki a full pre-season with the Waratahs, and though he still gets the occasional old-man early mark from training, the 32-year-old is now back to full fitness and excited to be on the verge of a return.
“I am not at all concerned with the Achilles; the main concern this week is the lungs, after a year,” he says. “But for me, a trial game is just a brilliant way to go as hard as you can, blow a gasket and then we have round one around the corner.
“It was a bloody shit year for me. But I am pretty good at moving past stuff and looking forward. I know it’s a bit cliched, but I don’t get anything out of looking back. I have had highs in my career, and that was a low. And it is what it is. You just have to crack on and keep going.”
Porecki concedes the 2023 World Cup and the Jones show was a “weird time”, but says he learnt a lot about how to deal with adversity, and he took great heart from the fact his Wallabies teammates trusted him to lead the side.
“It was definitely a tough period as a player to go through, and you don’t get the relief of … you know what they say when you’ve had a bad loss and the best thing about footy is you can get back on the horse a week later. I didn’t get that opportunity,” Porecki says.
“So you are kind of sitting there stirring, and you are dealing with an injury for a year. It just took me a bit longer to move past it.”
Watching his Wallabies teammates rebuild and take great strides under Schmidt last year, particularly on the spring tour, was bittersweet.
“It was a bloody shit year for me.”
Dave Porecki on 2024
“It was awesome, but definitely it hurt watching, too, because you want to be a part of it,” he says. “I was a part of the team in a period in time when we weren’t playing our best footy, so I want to be part of that.”
Hooker remains a position of relatively shallow depth in Australian rugby, even with Matt Faessler having grown into a strong Test hooker in Porecki’s absence. An injury-free Super Rugby season for Porecki will almost certainly see the experienced hooker be in the mix for the Lions series.
“It hurt to be watching on, and it makes you realise you are hungry to keep playing at that level,” Porecki says. “But just because you played there once doesn’t mean you have any claim to be playing there again – you have to earn it.”
The more immediate concern for Porecki is getting back into action for NSW and for 80 minutes, not thinking about the past year, or even the one ahead.
“I don’t spend too much time being too reflective, or worried about what could be,” he says. “I am not a dweller. I have put in the work. It’s just great to be back.”
