LIFE IS GOOD for Scott Fardy and his family in Newcastle, a two-hour drive north of Sydney.
Sitting in the sun outside a café just around the corner from his house, the 42-year-old reflects happily on the six years he spent in Ireland, but it has been nice to be back in Australia since leaving Connacht last summer.
On Friday, he met some of his old friends from Leinster and Connacht for lunch, with the Ireland squad in town for their Nations Championship game against Japan.
Fardy is now an assistant coach with the Hunter Wildfires, who are based in Newcastle but play in Sydney’s Shute Shield competition, and he’s open to possibilities elsewhere in the future. For now, it’s nice to put his family first.
His wife, Penelope, has family in Newcastle, and it’s a laid-back place to bring up their three children, nine-year-old August, five-year-old Walker, and three-year-old Theodora.
“We’re enjoying it here in Newcastle,” says Sydney native Fardy. “The boys have got a good little community.
“Summers here are fantastic. You’re at the beach all day, you know, fish and chips, and it’s just a great lifestyle for the kids. You’re out in the sun all day. The sport here’s great, all that stuff.
“Our family’s here as well, then my family is still down in Sydney. So they’re within a couple of hours and having Christmas with them last year was fantastic.
“I missed six or seven of those over the years, and I missed weddings, I missed funerals, I missed a lot of stuff.”
Rugby has certainly taken Fardy on the road. Even before he made it in Australian rugby with the Brumbies and then the Wallabies, reaching the 2015 World Cup final, he spent three years playing in Japan with the Kamaishi Seawaves.
At that stage in 2009, he had been released by Western Force and couldn’t get a Super Rugby deal anywhere else.
Fardy with his wife, Penelope, and son, August, in 2019. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
He was in Kamaishi when a tsunami hit in 2011, and though he was lucky that his home was inland enough that he was safe, he witnessed the harrowing aftermath. The Australian embassy offered to fly him home, but he stayed and helped with the clean-up.
“It did have an impact on me,” says Fardy now. “I’ll always have that connection to Japan in that way as well.
“I saw how quick life can go as well. Life changed overnight for so many people, and I was front and centre there seeing that happen, so it was a very sad time.”
When he got back to Australia in 2012, he finally found his place with the Brumbies down in Canberra. He has great grá for the place and is still part-owner of The Dock bar in Canberra, along with fellow Brumby and Wallaby Ben Alexander.
Blindside flanker/lock Fardy became a Wallaby in 2013 and had three happy years playing in the green and gold jersey before Leinster came calling.
It proved to be a perfect match as Fardy and Penelope took to life in Dublin, with August and Walker both born there. August actually arrived 12 minutes before Leinster played Montpellier in a Champions Cup game in October 2017, which Fardy missed.
“He was born the day James Ryan made his European debut,” says Fardy with a smile.
He and Penelope found Irish people “insanely friendly” and settled in quickly.
“We love Dublin as a city,” he says. “My wife has lots of good friends there as well.
“We loved our time in Dublin, and we’d probably move back there in a heartbeat sometimes. We both really enjoyed the people, and the same with Galway.
“We have an Irish neighbour around the corner here in Newcastle now. His wife’s always wanted to go home, and he’s like, ‘I wanna stay,’ so there’s always that push and pull, and we’re the same. Or we’re the counter of what a lot of Irish people go through.”
Fardy was a huge hit on the field with Leinster, helping them to the Champions Cup and Pro 14 double in his first season. They lost to Saracens in the Champions Cup final in 2019, but Fardy was part of two more Pro 14 titles during his four seasons with Leinster.
As much as he enjoyed the big Champions Cup days, Fardy found himself equally engaged by his leadership role with the younger Leinster sides in the Pro 14 when the Ireland internationals were away.
“It kept me young,” he says.
“Because one week, I was playing with, you know, Johnny Sexton and Rob Kearney, Ferg McFadden and those blokes.
Devin Toner, James Ryan and Scott Fardy after Leinster's double in 2018/19. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“And the next week I’d be playing with some of the young guys who were coming through and are now established Irish internationals. I had to be different one week to the next week. I couldn’t be the same person.
“It was probably the most enjoyable time I had. I often say that I wish I went to Leinster earlier because I really enjoyed that.
“I was very grateful for my time at the Brumbies, but in Leinster, the level of professionalism was something that, for any player, they just adore.”
Fardy has a huge amount of respect for Leo Cullen, praising him for how he drove that professionalism during his time with the province.
The former Wallaby hasn’t liked seeing some of the criticism of Cullen in recent years, with the Leinster head coach now heading into his final season in charge.
Fardy was also baffled to see people criticising Andy Farrell earlier this year when Ireland lost to France, but he understands now that it comes with being a coach.
“I loved working with Leo,” says Fardy. “Being a coach now myself as well, at times you just can’t escape that criticism.
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“I think it’s obviously unfounded. Leo can be incredibly proud of what he’s achieved so far, and I think he’s got another big year ahead of him in terms of what they can get done next season. He has been a great servant for the club.”
The pandemic meant the Fardy family didn’t finish their time in Ireland as they would have liked, so when they left in 2021, it was with the hope that they might be back at some stage soon.
Fardy moved straight into coaching, joining his former Wallabies boss Michael Cheika at the NEC Green Rockets, who are based near Tokyo.
He was enjoying that role and learning lots from Cheika, but when Penelope became pregnant in Scott’s second season there, they cut their time in Japan short to go home to Australia and be near their family.
So they made the move to Newcastle, where Theodora was born.
“My only kid that was born in Australia,” says Fardy with a smile. “She’s got a claim to fame against the rest of them.”
They bought a house, and Fardy got a coaching gig with his home club, the Warringah Rats, in the northern suburbs of Sydney. But it involved lots of time in the car down and up from Newcastle, which was “probably unsustainable with a baby at home.”
Fardy with Colm Reilly and Joe Joyce after Connacht beat the Sharks in Durban in 2023. Steve Haag Sports / Steve Haag/INPHO
Steve Haag Sports / Steve Haag/INPHO / Steve Haag/INPHO
And that’s when Connacht popped up unexpectedly. They were looking for a defence coach. Fardy had been coaching defence since retiring and loved that aspect of the game.
Even more importantly, he and his wife had been keen to go back to Ireland. It came around sooner than expected, but it was an opportunity they jumped at. Off went the entire family again, this time a quintet.
The kids took to life in Galway happily, and Fardy relished his role with Connacht, even if the western province weren’t able to get the results they craved on the pitch.
“It was a great learning experience,” says Fardy. “It’s always a difficult role for everybody going there, you know, it’s not the highest budget or anything like that, so it was a great learning experience for me.
“I learned more about the game in the two years there than I did in the previous 30 years. I just learned everything in the game.
“I worked with some really good coaches in Mark [Sexton] and Mul [John Muldoon] and Cullie [Tucker] as well. I learned a lot from those guys as I went along. I’ll treasure those moments.
“Also, I thought the players were great. I got along really well with the players.”
Fardy says he could see the potential in the Connacht squad, the kind of ability that seems to have been unlocked this season under Stuart Lancaster.
“We lost every close game. We were in so many games; we probably just needed a little bit of leadership.
“I knew that someone like Stu coming in was going to do a great job, and it didn’t start that well with Stu, but obviously he got on that run, and they started winning all those close games. That was a big difference.
“We lost every close game the last season I was there, so that’s coaching, that’s what happens, and we learned some lessons from that.”
Fardy’s time with Connacht ended in the summer of 2025 and he and his family moved back to Australia and into the house they’d bought in Newcastle.
In some ways, they were glad for the timing.
“A few weeks after we returned, my father-in-law passed away. It was good that we came home when we did because we got to see him before he passed.
“It’s been really hard, and I’ve been really supporting my wife and trying to get through the last six months to a year, really.
“I think moves are tough on the kids as well, so we’ve moved back from Ireland and they do miss Ireland. The boys had some good friends, especially my oldest boy at school, so he misses it there. But we’ve got a great life here as well at the same time.”
Fardy is now back coaching in Newcastle. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Newcastle certainly seems like a perfect place to raise children, while Fardy has enjoyed getting stuck in on the rugby front with the Hunter Wildfires, who represent Newcastle and the wider Hunter region.
Newcastle is a big rugby league town, but the Wildfires are in contention for the Shute Shield play-offs.
There are a few more Irish connections in the Wildfires squad. Ex-Connacht fullback John Porch is their captain, while former Munster flanker Jack Daly is playing with the Wildfires after an impressive Super Rugby season with the Western Force in Perth, where he has earned a two-year contract.
“A good Kerry man,” says Fardy of Daly.
“Porchy has been great for those guys in terms of the level of professionalism that he brings.
“And Jack’s only been with us for three or four weeks, but he’s been fantastic. He’s very hard on the ball, and a great tackling seven that we needed.”
In terms of his coaching future, Fardy is waiting to see if the right offer in the right place at the right time comes around. Family considerations will be key.
But they’ve been out on the road several times before.
“We’re in a good position where I can pick and choose where I want to go,” says Fardy. “I’m in a good space here in Newcastle. So if I find the right thing that I want to do, then we can go for that.
“When you’ve done that travel before, there’s always that part of you knows that you can do it again.
“I think that the hard thing is slowing down and not looking for what’s next.”
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'We loved Dublin. We'd move back in a heartbeat sometimes'
LIFE IS GOOD for Scott Fardy and his family in Newcastle, a two-hour drive north of Sydney.
Sitting in the sun outside a café just around the corner from his house, the 42-year-old reflects happily on the six years he spent in Ireland, but it has been nice to be back in Australia since leaving Connacht last summer.
On Friday, he met some of his old friends from Leinster and Connacht for lunch, with the Ireland squad in town for their Nations Championship game against Japan.
Fardy is now an assistant coach with the Hunter Wildfires, who are based in Newcastle but play in Sydney’s Shute Shield competition, and he’s open to possibilities elsewhere in the future. For now, it’s nice to put his family first.
His wife, Penelope, has family in Newcastle, and it’s a laid-back place to bring up their three children, nine-year-old August, five-year-old Walker, and three-year-old Theodora.
“We’re enjoying it here in Newcastle,” says Sydney native Fardy. “The boys have got a good little community.
“Summers here are fantastic. You’re at the beach all day, you know, fish and chips, and it’s just a great lifestyle for the kids. You’re out in the sun all day. The sport here’s great, all that stuff.
“Our family’s here as well, then my family is still down in Sydney. So they’re within a couple of hours and having Christmas with them last year was fantastic.
“I missed six or seven of those over the years, and I missed weddings, I missed funerals, I missed a lot of stuff.”
Rugby has certainly taken Fardy on the road. Even before he made it in Australian rugby with the Brumbies and then the Wallabies, reaching the 2015 World Cup final, he spent three years playing in Japan with the Kamaishi Seawaves.
At that stage in 2009, he had been released by Western Force and couldn’t get a Super Rugby deal anywhere else.
He was in Kamaishi when a tsunami hit in 2011, and though he was lucky that his home was inland enough that he was safe, he witnessed the harrowing aftermath. The Australian embassy offered to fly him home, but he stayed and helped with the clean-up.
“It did have an impact on me,” says Fardy now. “I’ll always have that connection to Japan in that way as well.
“I saw how quick life can go as well. Life changed overnight for so many people, and I was front and centre there seeing that happen, so it was a very sad time.”
When he got back to Australia in 2012, he finally found his place with the Brumbies down in Canberra. He has great grá for the place and is still part-owner of The Dock bar in Canberra, along with fellow Brumby and Wallaby Ben Alexander.
Blindside flanker/lock Fardy became a Wallaby in 2013 and had three happy years playing in the green and gold jersey before Leinster came calling.
It proved to be a perfect match as Fardy and Penelope took to life in Dublin, with August and Walker both born there. August actually arrived 12 minutes before Leinster played Montpellier in a Champions Cup game in October 2017, which Fardy missed.
“He was born the day James Ryan made his European debut,” says Fardy with a smile.
He and Penelope found Irish people “insanely friendly” and settled in quickly.
“We love Dublin as a city,” he says. “My wife has lots of good friends there as well.
“We loved our time in Dublin, and we’d probably move back there in a heartbeat sometimes. We both really enjoyed the people, and the same with Galway.
“We have an Irish neighbour around the corner here in Newcastle now. His wife’s always wanted to go home, and he’s like, ‘I wanna stay,’ so there’s always that push and pull, and we’re the same. Or we’re the counter of what a lot of Irish people go through.”
Fardy was a huge hit on the field with Leinster, helping them to the Champions Cup and Pro 14 double in his first season. They lost to Saracens in the Champions Cup final in 2019, but Fardy was part of two more Pro 14 titles during his four seasons with Leinster.
As much as he enjoyed the big Champions Cup days, Fardy found himself equally engaged by his leadership role with the younger Leinster sides in the Pro 14 when the Ireland internationals were away.
“It kept me young,” he says.
“Because one week, I was playing with, you know, Johnny Sexton and Rob Kearney, Ferg McFadden and those blokes.
“And the next week I’d be playing with some of the young guys who were coming through and are now established Irish internationals. I had to be different one week to the next week. I couldn’t be the same person.
“It was probably the most enjoyable time I had. I often say that I wish I went to Leinster earlier because I really enjoyed that.
“I was very grateful for my time at the Brumbies, but in Leinster, the level of professionalism was something that, for any player, they just adore.”
Fardy has a huge amount of respect for Leo Cullen, praising him for how he drove that professionalism during his time with the province.
The former Wallaby hasn’t liked seeing some of the criticism of Cullen in recent years, with the Leinster head coach now heading into his final season in charge.
Fardy was also baffled to see people criticising Andy Farrell earlier this year when Ireland lost to France, but he understands now that it comes with being a coach.
“I loved working with Leo,” says Fardy. “Being a coach now myself as well, at times you just can’t escape that criticism.
“I think it’s obviously unfounded. Leo can be incredibly proud of what he’s achieved so far, and I think he’s got another big year ahead of him in terms of what they can get done next season. He has been a great servant for the club.”
The pandemic meant the Fardy family didn’t finish their time in Ireland as they would have liked, so when they left in 2021, it was with the hope that they might be back at some stage soon.
Fardy moved straight into coaching, joining his former Wallabies boss Michael Cheika at the NEC Green Rockets, who are based near Tokyo.
He was enjoying that role and learning lots from Cheika, but when Penelope became pregnant in Scott’s second season there, they cut their time in Japan short to go home to Australia and be near their family.
So they made the move to Newcastle, where Theodora was born.
“My only kid that was born in Australia,” says Fardy with a smile. “She’s got a claim to fame against the rest of them.”
They bought a house, and Fardy got a coaching gig with his home club, the Warringah Rats, in the northern suburbs of Sydney. But it involved lots of time in the car down and up from Newcastle, which was “probably unsustainable with a baby at home.”
And that’s when Connacht popped up unexpectedly. They were looking for a defence coach. Fardy had been coaching defence since retiring and loved that aspect of the game.
Even more importantly, he and his wife had been keen to go back to Ireland. It came around sooner than expected, but it was an opportunity they jumped at. Off went the entire family again, this time a quintet.
The kids took to life in Galway happily, and Fardy relished his role with Connacht, even if the western province weren’t able to get the results they craved on the pitch.
“It was a great learning experience,” says Fardy. “It’s always a difficult role for everybody going there, you know, it’s not the highest budget or anything like that, so it was a great learning experience for me.
“I learned more about the game in the two years there than I did in the previous 30 years. I just learned everything in the game.
“I worked with some really good coaches in Mark [Sexton] and Mul [John Muldoon] and Cullie [Tucker] as well. I learned a lot from those guys as I went along. I’ll treasure those moments.
“Also, I thought the players were great. I got along really well with the players.”
Fardy says he could see the potential in the Connacht squad, the kind of ability that seems to have been unlocked this season under Stuart Lancaster.
“We lost every close game. We were in so many games; we probably just needed a little bit of leadership.
“I knew that someone like Stu coming in was going to do a great job, and it didn’t start that well with Stu, but obviously he got on that run, and they started winning all those close games. That was a big difference.
“We lost every close game the last season I was there, so that’s coaching, that’s what happens, and we learned some lessons from that.”
Fardy’s time with Connacht ended in the summer of 2025 and he and his family moved back to Australia and into the house they’d bought in Newcastle.
In some ways, they were glad for the timing.
“A few weeks after we returned, my father-in-law passed away. It was good that we came home when we did because we got to see him before he passed.
“It’s been really hard, and I’ve been really supporting my wife and trying to get through the last six months to a year, really.
“I think moves are tough on the kids as well, so we’ve moved back from Ireland and they do miss Ireland. The boys had some good friends, especially my oldest boy at school, so he misses it there. But we’ve got a great life here as well at the same time.”
Newcastle certainly seems like a perfect place to raise children, while Fardy has enjoyed getting stuck in on the rugby front with the Hunter Wildfires, who represent Newcastle and the wider Hunter region.
Newcastle is a big rugby league town, but the Wildfires are in contention for the Shute Shield play-offs.
There are a few more Irish connections in the Wildfires squad. Ex-Connacht fullback John Porch is their captain, while former Munster flanker Jack Daly is playing with the Wildfires after an impressive Super Rugby season with the Western Force in Perth, where he has earned a two-year contract.
“A good Kerry man,” says Fardy of Daly.
“Porchy has been great for those guys in terms of the level of professionalism that he brings.
“And Jack’s only been with us for three or four weeks, but he’s been fantastic. He’s very hard on the ball, and a great tackling seven that we needed.”
In terms of his coaching future, Fardy is waiting to see if the right offer in the right place at the right time comes around. Family considerations will be key.
But they’ve been out on the road several times before.
“We’re in a good position where I can pick and choose where I want to go,” says Fardy. “I’m in a good space here in Newcastle. So if I find the right thing that I want to do, then we can go for that.
“When you’ve done that travel before, there’s always that part of you knows that you can do it again.
“I think that the hard thing is slowing down and not looking for what’s next.”
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