Feeling good: Kurtley Beale and his Waratahs teammates celebrate their Super Rugby triumph
The Waratahs are hopeful of locking in off-contract playmaker Kurtley Beale within a fortnight.
Coach Michael Cheika said he wasn’t taking anything for granted, but was reasonably confident of re-signing the 43-Test back for another season.
“It looks like it’s going better, so hopefully something’s going to happen there in the next week or two,” Cheika said.
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“It’s been done with the Australian Rugby Union but I’m hearing it more from Kurtley’s side, so hopefully it will all work out.”
Beale has reportedly attracted interest from NRL clubs including the Bulldogs and expressed some frustration back in June about his place in the Wallabies.
But a title-winning finals campaign with the Waratahs and two starts in the Test No.10 jersey since then had him making much more positive noises about his future.
Beale attributed his frustrations to doubt and told Fairfax Media he had benefited from working hard with fellow playmaker Bernard Foley to help take the Waratahs to the top of Super Rugby.
Cheika said it was clear Beale was happy in rugby.
And while his continued presence at No.10 is under a cloud after the Wallabies’ 51-20 humiliation at the hands of the All Blacks last weekend, the NSW coach said he was not worried about Beale’s reaction.
“He loves rugby, you can’t be reactive to every result,” Cheika said.
“He’s obviously not happy after the weekend, so he wants to play the best football he can every week.
“It wasn’t handy on the weekend for anyone but I don’t think that’s going ot have an effect on anything, no.”
The NSW coach, speaking at the Waratahs’ end of season awards night in Pyrmont on Tuesday, said he was concerned for a while that Beale and the ARU would not come to an agreement over his future.
The union’s new contracting system means, for the top 28 or 30 players in Australia, the ARU negotiates directly with them in a process that effectively shuts the province out of the process.
“Because I’ve been out of it, I haven’t been involved in the recruitment process, it’s not been that easy to get a read,” Cheika said.
“There was a point there where they were talking about league and there was some serious interest, and there probably still is, but I like to think what we’ve done here over the season but also the last two months [will help].
“He really came to the fore over the last two months, got his game really motoring. You could even see the scores in the [Matt Burke Cup voting], he really came home strongly.
“You’d like to think that good feeling he’s got will carry into another season. Obviously there’s the opportunity for a world cup at the end of next year, which is very hard to resist.
“I’m not taking it for granted, because it never is until it’s signed, sealed and delivered, but I’m a lot more positive now than I was a month or so ago. I would like it to get done.”