‘I hold no grudge’: Why Australian rugby’s newest rock star had to leave Sydney to get a gig

Charlie Cale is, by most measures, pretty good at rugby.

The Brumbies back-rower is tall and powerful, but can also out sprint most of the backs when he really winds up.

Running wide and with wheels that regularly embarrass cover defenders, Cale has scored eight tries in five games this season, and leads the Super Rugby Pacific try-scorer’s tally.

But he also has the goods when it comes to things that don’t make the highlight reels. Cale also leads the competition for lineout takes and is the Brumbies’ top tackler, too. He is also seventh in the competition for tackles, but with the highest percentage of successful tackles in the top 10 (91 per cent).

In Super Rugby’s new fantasy comp, Cale has the highest points total and game average, and is also the most-picked player. More than half of the 50,000 entrants – who are primarily Kiwis – have Cale in their team.

It’s an impressive yield. But here’s the scary part, or perhaps more accurately for Australian rugby, the thrilling part: many believe Cale is not even close to reaching his potential.

This season is the first time he’s been healthy in years.

“This is the first season where I came into it feeling, well, you don’t always feel 100 per cent, but I was at least feeling at my best,” Cale says.

Cale, who will run out for the Brumbies against rivals NSW on Friday night, is in his fourth Super season and made his Wallabies debut in 2024.

But in nearly all his years as a professional, Cale’s natural talent has been shackled by injury. The Brumbies back-rower was stymied by a chronic shoulder problem in 2024 and then a back stress fracture that sidelined him for most of 2025.

“It sucked, but I’m hoping the silver lining is I now know how important my body is,” Cale said.

“When I was younger, I was probably a bit naive to just think that I would be always fine. You never really think major injuries are going to happen to you. But I’ve got to do more because my body isn’t as weathered or naturally flexible. I’ve learned I’ve had to do a lot of stuff around flexibility and core work that I probably would half-ass back in the day. Now it’s standard, and it’s got me to a good place.”

Now 25, Cale’s belated rise to stardom has confirmed his “late bloomer” status: he made his first rep rugby team at the age of 19.

Born in Dubbo, Cale moved to Sydney at the age of one and grew up in Beecroft playing rugby and cricket, and for a while it was probably the latter that was more seriously pursued. He played Green Shield rep cricket (under-16s) for Northern Districts – “I just knew the coach” – but more as a big-hitting batter.

“Because I was tall, everyone assumed I was a fast bowler,” he says. “But then I would run in and bowl dodgy leg-spin.”

Cale was a back until year 11 at the King’s School, when he shot up and moved to the second row. He played in the school’s first XV in 2018 along with some handy types called Joe Suaalii and Will Penisini, and they won the title. Cale made the GPS Third XV, but nothing higher.

“I wasn’t necessarily dirty [about not making junior rep teams] because I didn’t think I was good enough anyway,” he says. “Rugby was something that I loved, but I probably didn’t really see much of the future in it.”

When he filled out and got more explosive speed playing colts for Eastwood, however, the ball started rolling. Cale made the Sydney under-19s in 2019 and was picked for the Junior Wallabies in 2020 – although they didn’t play due to COVID.

But with peers such as Will Harris and Jeremy Williams preferred, the Waratahs didn’t come knocking.

“I was in the Gen Blue squad for three months or so, but I had a little ankle injury, and then it kind of got to that stage when they ask you to come back or not. And then they never asked me back,” Cale says.

Brumbies assistant coach Laurie Fisher was very interested, however, and in 2021, Cale was recruited to Canberra on an academy deal.

“The Brums were the only team that showed interest – the Tahs didn’t want me,” Cale recalls.

“When you’re in it, you have those little thoughts, oh, your home town doesn’t want you, but not for long.

“I’m very, very happy that I landed where I landed. I don’t hold any grudges or anything like that. I absolutely love Canberra. I f---ing love the Brumbies. It couldn’t have worked out better.”

Not for the Waratahs, mind you. Tahs officials usually shrug and give a ‘You can’t keep them all’, but Cale was soon providing hindsight migraines at Daceyville.

He made his debut in Super Rugby for the Brumbies in 2023 and became a mainstay at No.8 in 2024. Cale was also a shock call-up to the Wallabies in Joe Schmidt’s first Test series in July 2024, and played his first game in gold against Wales.

Cale started in his second Test a week later, but having carried a shoulder injury all year, it was decided he should have surgery. Cale returned in the summer, but niggling back soreness got progressively worse in the early stages of 2025.

“I was struggling,” he says. “I was getting laughed at because we’d come out to warm up and I’d be on the side, in the foetal position, getting like heat on my back.”

Cale was diagnosed with a stress fracture and he missed almost the entire season.

Rehab was a lonely existence and Cale admits he leaned on the Brumbies’ “family”, in particular James Slipper. The veteran prop serves as an older brother figure to Cale and Brumbies teammate Billy Pollard, say club insiders.

“I would never say this to his face, but he’s just like ... he’s just the best,” Cale says of Slipper.

“He’s funny, he’s charming, he’s smart – he’s got it all. I’d never say that to him, of course.

“But on the flip side of that, he has all these milestones and everyone thinks he’s a great bloke. But me and Billy, we know some things about him. So I feel like we keep him grounded.”

Cale is known as a comic at the Brumbies and often has elaborate pranks in the works.

“I say some things that I probably shouldn’t,” Cale says. “And my comedic timing is a little bit off sometimes. So I may interrupt the coach when he’s talking every now and get a laugh, but it can be detrimental to my cause. I probably have to work on that.”

Given Cale’s numbers, you get the sense a Stephen Larkham stare is probably the extent of his punishment.

‘I’ve still got what it takes’: Kellaway opens up on uncertain future

Jonathan Drennan

Waratahs winger Andrew Kellaway admits he’s still fighting to prove he has what it takes to play for coach Dan McKellar, with his future in NSW and rugby uncertain beyond this season.

After figuring in three Tests for the Wallabies in November, the 30-year-old has played just 60 minutes of Super Rugby this season. Kellaway will have another chance to impress when he returns to the line-up for Friday’s clash with the Brumbies in Canberra, but admits he may need to reconsider his future if he fails to become a regular fixture in the team.

“Coming back to Sydney [from the Rebels ahead of last season] was solely about making sure my young family was around my extended family and my wife’s extended family,” Kellaway said.

“With the most respect, rugby was an afterthought in that decision and I was just lucky enough that the Waratahs are where I’m from and it’s a great club and a club that I love very much,” Kellaway said.

“As for the next 12, 24, 36 months, I don’t know. Completely truthfully, I haven’t made a decision on what I want to do ... I haven’t had a great deal of opportunity this year, and I’d like to get back on the field.

“At this point, really, it’s about proving to myself and some people in the building here [at the Waratahs] that I’ve still got what it takes to be at this level – and once I’ve had a chance to do that, then we’ll see.”

Since his emergence as a schoolboy star at the Scots College and progression to professional rugby, Kellaway has rarely dealt with an extended period out of a match-day squad when fit.

But after the Hurricanes’ 40-point win over NSW in Sydney, Kellaway was dropped for next week’s game against the Reds.

While his teammates limbered up at Suncorp Stadium, Kellaway took a four-hour bus trip down the Hume Highway to tangle with a Brumbies reserves squad.

“That was tough, it was certainly different to the game I played before that, or the game before that in Dublin [for the Wallabies] in front of 50,000 people,” Kellaway.

“But it’s a different approach, a different perspective ... what do you do? I could sit there and mope and say how bad it is to sit on the bus for four hours, play a game and get back on the bus, but nobody wins out of that, and especially not me.

“You’ve got to decide at some point that I’m going to do the best I can, and if that’s not good enough in the eyes of the coach ... then that’s all I can do, and I’m at peace with that. I certainly feel extremely content and extremely satisfied with what I’ve put out [in training], and at the end of the day, I don’t make the [selection] decision.”

After three successive losses, the Waratahs face the Brumbies in a potentially season-defining clash. Having missed last week’s loss to the Blues due to a cork, Kellaway understands the importance the game now takes for the Waratahs.

“We’re in a tricky spot,” Kellaway said. “We probably haven’t had the run of games we’ve liked. We would like to have won at least two out of those three last three games, and certainly we were in a position to do that.

“So we’ve got to be careful. We can’t go into this all emotional and make it more than what it is because we’ve got a job to do. We’ve got to focus on really stringing a performance together, which we haven’t done yet.”

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