Rugby Australia have been open about their ambition to revive union’s golden past at next year’s men’s World Cup. Wallabies coach Les Kiss appears to have taken it literally.

His recall of Kurtley Beale, who turns 38 in January, for the Nations Championship this month is the final sweep in the playmaker’s staggering story arc. One that began with birth in Blacktown in the late 1980s, through a childhood in Mount Druitt, that loops through his private high schooling and debut for the Waratahs in – check that date – 2007. The ensuing two decades? We’ll get to that.

“I just kept believing, I felt like there was some unfinished business,” Beale said ahead of the match against England in London this weekend. “I guess the focus was always on trying to make sure my body was right, my mind was in a good headspace.”

With an age closer to former opponent Jonny Wilkinson than new teammate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Beale has had two decades of experience to tune his much-lauded rugby brain. The surprising thing is how his body has managed to just about keep pace. Just about.

In the days after the last time he was recalled to the Wallabies, at age 35, Beale suffered an Achilles rupture playing club rugby. It’s the kind of serious injury that can cruel the careers of those in their athletic prime, worse typically than a leg break or even the dreaded tear of an anterior cruciate ligament.

Most believed it to be the end for one of the Wallabies’ entertainers of the 21st century. His retirement then might have been poetic, a career which never fulfilled its early promise, brought to a close after a noble, final acknowledgment by Wallabies selectors.

Beale had other ideas. At the time, he told then-Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt he would be back. Less than a year later, he was playing Super Rugby again. “It was a rollercoaster ride,” Beale said.

“There was a lot of support there and, yeah, there were some tough days but I feel like that allowed me to be the person I am today, and allowed me to stay motivated and still be attached to my goals.”

He has been a steadying hand for the Western Force in recent seasons, offering cover behind Wallabies’ No 10 Ben Donaldson as well as at inside centre and full-back. Lining up at No 12, Beale helped the Force to a Super Rugby Aus title last month playing outside flyhalf Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, who debuted for the Wallabies against the All Blacks.

Beale has only been given a train-and-trial contract with the Force for next year, after they signed his former Wallabies teammate James O’Connor. It might be considered a slight, but Beale regards the arrangement as another chance. “I’ve always built myself in that way to be able to be ready if an opportunity came,” he said. “I was just looking for a spot for next year. I’m glad that I’ll be able to do that with the Force and hopefully, I’ll push along there too.”

He returns to a Wallabies team desperate for a sure hand among their most influential ball players. The merry-go-round at flyhalf still spins, suspension and injury has ravaged at centre, and full-back in Tom Wright has yet to produce his best form under Kiss.

In his 95 caps for Australia, Beale has seen peaks like few others, having won the John Eales Medal in 2011 and played at three World Cups, including in the final in 2015. Yet through a succession of off-field controversies in those early years he gained the reputation of a wayward star.

For much of the past decade it has been his football that has made the headlines, but his personal life was dragged back into the spotlight in 2023. He was ultimately found not guilty of sexual assault at a Bondi pub in a high-profile trial, but the charges prompted Rugby Australia to stand him down, meaning he could not play at all during that World Cup year.

Back in gold this week, Beale said he will help his younger teammates “open their minds up” in dealing with the challenges of international rugby. He also gave a chuckle when asked by a British journalist whether he still had “an X-factor” in his game.

“What do you reckon?,” he smiled back. “I feel like if I’m training well, doing all the one percenters off the field, [understanding] my role, strategy – whether you’re in the 23 or you’re not in the 23 – but I’m adding value, I’m feeling good, then 100%.

“I do feel like if I can be physically prepped, then I’m able to go out there and just react to the game in front of me, but it all starts at training and creating that level of competition and pushing each other. And once you get that there’s confidence to be able to go out there and just play a natural game.”