Wallabies hooker Dave Porecki has resisted the chance for a free shot at Rugby Australia, instead preferring to draw the positives from a wretched Rugby World Cup as he prepares to enter the next phase of his professional career.
News that Porecki had committed to both NSW Waratahs and the Wallabies until the end of 2026 was confirmed on Tuesday, the hooker having signed a two-year extension that will see him remain a vital cog of Australia's run to the British & Irish Lions series and beyond.
Porecki's extension is an early piece of good news for new Australia coach Joe Schmidt, the Kiwi who will attempt to pick up the pieces from the rubble that Eddie Jones left in 2023.
The hooker found himself in the centre of that mess, having been promoted to captain - the Wallabies sixth under Jones in just seven Tests - with Porecki left to sit alongside the now-departed coach and explain where it all went wrong after losses to both Fiji and Wales - the latter a 40-6 hammering that ultimately ended their World Cup campaign at the pool stage for the first time in Australian rugby history.
But a new year brings new hope, and Porecki, while admitting he did take time to process the Wallabies' World Cup horror show, says he also sought out the silver linings of the unmitigated six-week disaster.
"I won't lie, it was frustrating," Porecki told a small media contingent including ESPN on Tuesday afternoon in Sydney. "But at the same time, you've got to take the positives where you can, otherwise I'll look back on that sort of period in my life and I don't want to look at that as a waste; I want to look at that as an opportunity for us to take learnings as a group and for me to take learnings as a player as well, and I did that.
"Some of that might be what not to do in the future. But for me, I was very, very reflective over the eight weeks into what can I take out of this that's a positive to lead on to the next couple of years as a rugby player and just generally in life."
While other players like Len Ikitau and Quade Cooper - who were both overlooked for the World Cup - and Andrew Kellaway, have verbalized their frustrations around Jones' tenure, Porecki opted not to publicly air any individual grievances.
He did however reveal that he "gave them everything, I was open and honest" in regard to a Rugby Australia review, both as a player and in his role as Rugby Union Players Association president.
Pushed on the specifics of his feedback, Porecki again remain tight-lipped.
"Oh, I would probably say that's more within the players, not so much the media."
One positive Porecki and other Wallabies have found after the World Cup mire is an early return to preseason compared with other years.
Typically, Australia's leading Wallabies would enjoy at least a six-week break after the conclusion of the spring tour in late November, but given their World Cup campaign officially came to and end on Oct. 7, they instead returned to training with their Super Rugby franchises in December, rather than January.
After a rough start to 2023 that saw the Waratahs win just one of their first six games, Porecki is hopeful the extra few weeks' preparation will hold him and the team in good stead for 2024.
"Well, last year because I was coming off the back of concussion as well, you almost use the first sort of quarter of the season to get your legs under you, whereas here you've got a base and a foundation from training to then lead in and hit the ground running," Porecki said. "I think sort of that answers your question.
"Before I sort of made the Wallabies, I'd always have really long preseasons, especially over in the UK, so you hit the ground running when you're in a season. And then, you don't actually realise that one of the components of playing international rugby is yes, you get rest after, but you've got to come in and pretty much be 24/7 throughout your break.
"We had our eight weeks to really refresh and then also a decent block in the preseason to really physically and mentally get up to speed, and then on top of that you got trial games, so there's no excuse for us to not physically be ready. I don't expect us in the first couple of rounds to be playing 100%, but I don't think any team is."
After a promising sixth-placed finish in Darren Coleman's first year as coach, NSW slipped to seventh in 2023 and were then hammered by the Blues in a quarterfinal in Auckland.
Having been bullish about their prospects at the start of 2023 and identifying a top-four finish as the goal, the Waratahs were ridiculed for their optimism when it all quickly unravelled. Porecki said that while there was plenty of excitement for what is the team's 150th anniversary, they wouldn't be making the same mistake once more.
"Well, there's already a buzz around the 150th year, so that's massive," Porecki said. "I think this as a group we've been together long enough now that we expect results from each other and with that comes standards. So far our training, the standard's been really high, the intensity has been really high, but I think we've been humbled a little bit from last year in that we almost put a target on our own back.
"This year, we're quietly going about our business. We're going to build throughout the year. I'm looking forward to us as a group, hopefully, building throughout the year to be what we think we can be throughout the year."