Nic White

A nippy half-back with a sharp pass, long-range kicking game and a good sense of spatial awareness, Nic White has performed with distinction for both the ACT Brumbies and the Wallabies.

White played fly half during his early schoolboy days but made the switch to scrum half when he was 15. A medial ligament injury ruled him out of contention for Australian Schools in 2008 however his talents were clearly identified as he won selection to successive Junior World Championships in 2009 and 2010.

A Brumbies Academy graduate, White then made his Super Rugby debut against the Queensland Reds in 2011. A vicious coward punch at a Canberra music festival in early 2012, one that left him with a broken jaw, proved to be a decisive moment in White’s career. A renewed outlook was reflected in his football and within six months White was selected on the bench for all three home Tests against Wales before a shoulder operation ended his season.

He returned to top form for the Brumbies in 2013 as they featured in their first Super Rugby Final since 2004. Unfortunately, another shoulder injury saw him miss the highly anticipated series against the British & Irish Lions. White was then named in new Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie’s first squad for the 2013 Rugby Championship and he went on to win his first Test cap against New Zealand in Sydney. With Will Genia out of action following ankle surgery, White consolidated his position within the Wallabies over the course of 2014 before he was a controversial omission from the 2015 Rugby World Cup squad.

White then made the decision to leave Australia when he signed a two-year contract with Montpellier in France. He moved to the Exeter Chiefs for the 2017-18 season and looked set to remain in the U.K. for some time. Then, on the eve of the 2019 English Premiership final, White confirmed that he had signed a contract with the Brumbies. White returned home, played a dominant role in Australia’s record-breaking win over New Zealand in Perth, and then won selection to RWC’19 in Japan.

Post-RWC19, White has been involved in a three-year, three-way tussle with Tate McDermott and Jake Gordon for the Wallabies’ No.9 jersey.

In 2021, a medial cruciate ligament injury, suffered during training at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast, saw White miss the home series against France and the first Bledisloe Test. He won three caps off the bench before he was promoted to the run-on side for the year’s final seven internationals.

White was capped in 12 of the Wallabies’ 14 Tests in 2022 and won his 50th cap in the third Test against England, and started the first seven through the South African matches in The Rugby Championship. He later returned to the run-on side to face world numbers one and two, Ireland and France, on the Spring Tour.

2023 saw White feature in three of the Wallabies' four Rugby World Cup pool stage matches in France. He would follow this up by being a prominent feature for the Western Force in their 2024 and 2025 season.

Since then, he has played a more limited role for the Wallabies as he battles for the scrum-half position with Tate McDermott and Jake Gordon. Having decided to initially retire after the British & Irish Lions series, he reversed on that decision in order to return to the squad ahead of the Wallabies' first two matches of the Rugby Championship in 2025 with a number of injuries in the scrumhalf ranks.