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Twelve years after his Super Rugby debut, Jack Debreczeni is finally home.
The 2026 season will be Debreczeni’s 10th in the southern hemisphere’s flagship provincial tournament and, potentially, his final year as a professional rugby player. From Melbourne to Hamilton and then Canberra, with Japanese stops in Suzuka and Tokyo along the way, Debreczeni has packed more clubs into his career than most.
But there is a touch of serendipity about his journey home to Sydney and a shot at NSW Waratahs’ problem position: fly-half. For over the past six years, the Waratahs have cycled through no fewer than six different No. 10s, with Will Harrison, Ben Donaldson, Tane Edmed, Lawson Creighton and Jack Bowen all at times wearing the shirt with varying degrees of limited success.
Now Debreczeni, a few months short of his 33rd birthday, has an opportunity to be the steady hand the Waratahs have been searching for, while also helping to mentor Creighton and Bowen, who have experienced some of the wobbles the Sydneysider can speak to with experience.
“I think the main thing for me was getting my body right, I was pretty busted last year,” Debreczeni told ESPN of his return home. “There [were] times where I thought I wouldn’t play again. So yeah, the main thing was to get my body right, get it to a place that I can compete, and play the way I want to play at Super again.
“And then yeah, [Waratahs coach Dan McKellar] has just been pretty honest that everyone will get an opportunity, and I guess whoever puts their hand up will get the role on the day and the other two will support and make sure that person’s ready to go.
“So yeah, I’m just trying to get back on the training field consistently, get my skills up consistently after the past year… and then trying to put my best foot forward to hopefully be there round one.”
Jack Debreczeni spent five seasons with the Rebels, before heading across the Tasman to join the Chiefs Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images
And be there — Allianz Stadium for Friday night’s season opener with the Reds — Debreczeni should, with McKellar set to name the veteran playmaker for his club debut proper after he and halves partner Jake Gordon impressed as a combination in last week’s trial win over the Brumbies in Canberra.
Had it not been for former Wallabies fly-half Bernard Foley, Debreczeni might have already played 50 games for the Waratahs instead. Part of NSW’s academy system as he began his post-school rugby journey with West Harbour, Debreczeni was faced with a decision – to wait in the wings in Sydney or head south to Melbourne to join the Rebels, who in 2014 were in just their fourth season of Super Rugby.
Despite the Rebels’ struggles, of which there were many, Debreczeni does not reflect on his time in Melbourne with a “what if” mentality, nor any of the other stops on a journey that finally brought him home to Sydney.
“I’ve done a lot of work on the mental part of the game. I think it’s in all sports; we don’t really talk about the mental side of the game,” Debreczeni said. “But it’s super important, I’ve learnt that over the years. So I wouldn’t say there’s one particular sliding doors moment.
“I might have stayed in New Zealand a year longer potentially. I had injuries in my year-and-a-half there; maybe I would have stayed longer because I really enjoyed it there. But I had to sort of weigh up a few things around family and being injured, and how long I have left in the career.
“But yeah, I sort of take every moment as being for a reason, not that I would change things, that’s just my journey and I’ve just got to roll with the punches.”
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During his time in Japan, Debreczeni spoke with ESPN about his own experience as an Australian playmaker finding his feet in the professional game; the spotlight, the pathway and the lack of support the current generation of fly-halves had received.
But he feels a shift is finally taking place.
“Yeah, I think from what I’ve seen, definitely the pathways around 16s, 19s, it just gives guys more of a chance to play footy, play in competitive games and grow and learn. They build connections with each other,” Debreczeni told ESPN.
“I think the Super B [Super Rugby AU], you saw with someone like [Waratahs youngster] Joey Fowler, [that] was awesome for him, and to me there’s that need to still have that third-tier comp so those players get that exposure. But yeah, I think we’re definitely getting better.
“I still think, from the outside, we’re quick to jump on young 10s if they don’t perform, especially at international level. But the good thing is there’s a lot of them going around at the moment and competition will only bring success.
Jack Debreczeni played the touring British and Irish Lions twice in 2025 Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty Images
“So yeah, I think it’s getting better, but hopefully the pathways they’re putting in now will help in years to come, the players coming through, they’re a bit more resilient to the pressure and the outcome focus that professional rugby is, and they’re able to handle those pressures when they do come through.”
Just how much rugby Debreczeni plays this season will depend on form and how his body, which was hanging on by a thread after he made two appearances against the British and Irish Lions, holds up.
But with superstars Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Max Jorgensen outside him, so too fellow Wallabies Andrew Kellaway and Harry Potter, and a forward pack that feels more in line with the McKellar blueprint, the veteran playmaker seemingly has the tools around him to help guide the Waratahs well beyond their lowly eighth-placed finish from 2025.
And, if the preseason fisticuffs between Miles Amatosero and Angus Scott-Young, which landed the former a two-game ban, are anything to go by, then the Waratahs will enter Friday night’s clash with the Reds battle-hardened.
But it was the Waratahs’ inability to sustain a high level of intensity for long stretches, amid a run of injuries, that brought about their downfall last year.
Debreczeni is quietly confident 2026 will be different.
“A lot of pressure around our game, especially in defence. Everything’s around creating pressure, creating chaos,” Debreczeni said of the McKellar Waratahs, version 2.0. “And then in attack, trying to move the ball and utilise what we have out in those open channels, because the athletic ability that we have is quite impressive — young and old.
“So I think you’ll see a lot of desire and passion from this team under Dan. He’s sort of bred that into them over the last year and a bit, trying to build the culture to where it is now. That training intensity is right up there, the boys are on, we’re competing and trying to make the best out of each other or get the best out of each other. So I think you’ll see a passionate team come round one against the Reds.”
If Debreczeni can be a cool head amongst the Waratahs’ planned chaos, then NSW might finally have found their answer at No. 10.
