Long before the Television Match Official trained in on every ruck, scrutinised every collision and directed referees towards the big screen, the glory days of the old Super 12 were, for Australia's rugby community, highlighted by the annual interstate clash between New South Wales and Queensland.
At the centre of the fixture in the 2000s were Waratahs wild thing Phil Waugh and his Queensland counterpart David Croft, the two opensides who went at each other like two brothers finally set free from their shared bedroom.
Many a scrap was shared, some blood shed and bruises borne, before the duo would shake hands at fulltime and start to plan how they could come out on top at their next meeting.
While Croft never ascended to the Test arena, Waugh became a fixture on in the gold jersey under Eddie Jones in a combination with George Smith that predated the "Pooper duo" from the Michael Cheika years.
Throughout his career Waugh remained a relentless attack dog, a breakdown and defensive warrior that did his best work away from the cameras and often with little fanfare.
Roughly 15 years on, he plans to chart a similar course as Rugby Australia's chief executive, a role in which he was confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.
"I see it as a team effort, you're always going to have battles," Waugh told reporters when asked how he would work alongside his outspoken chairman Hamish McLennan. "It's a bit like playing [or in] the selection room you'll have differences of opinion, but when you go out to market you want to have a united front.
"So I'll certainly challenge aspects that I may disagree with, but then when we go to market we need to make sure that we're out there in front of people as a united board with the executive. So I don't see it [as a problem], I think it's quite exciting, I like ambition and leaning in and having a crack.
"I certainly played my rugby that way, and I intend to lead the organisation the same way."
Just as McLennan described it in his opening remarks announcing Waugh's appointment, the 79-Test star's ascension to the CEO role from the board was indeed the worst-kept secret in Australian rugby.
As quickly as rumours began to spread Waugh was indeed the man to follow Marinos, who resigned early last month, so too did question marks about the transparency of the appointment process, that the former Waratahs skipper was just another beneficiary of "jobs for the boys".
But McLennan rebuffed those suggestions, declaring Waugh to be the standout candidate from a process that had canvassed all available and credible options.
"We had an external consultant come in, we mapped the market to see who was out there, we had outside candidates who interviewed for the role; Phil put his hand up, he has great respect amongst the board, but it was a very fair and transparent process and he won hands down," the chairman said.
"He delivered a stand-up presentation with his vision for the future and it really excited the board and our stakeholders, and he won it fair and square... I think he's got really high standards in how he wants our on-field and off-field behaviour to co-exist and we've got to shoot for the stars.
"So he is very performance driven and we've seen that in his business career, and the board and I took a lot of comfort from the fact that he's been there doing the hard yards over the last two-and-a-half years.
"So when I look at my interactions with Phil, we've had the healthy debates and disagreements on a range of issues but we've always ended up in a better place. And I think that the board recognises that, too, and they've taken a lot of comfort from his insights around the game and how we can drive it harder."
Waugh enters the role with an impressive career in banking on his resume and after four years as a non-executive director on the RA board.
And it is that grounding in the ebbs and flows of Australian rugby, particularly its troubles of recent times, that McLennan believes will serve Waugh well for what lies ahead.
But unlike his past two immediate predecessors, Raelene Castle and Marinos, Waugh is undoubtedly Australian rugby through and through.
In lockstep with McLennan, there is no doubt that Waugh will put the best interests of rugby in Australia before anything else. In his own words that is as much about reconnecting the community and amateur games with their professional counterparts, and building that interest from grassroots through to the Wallabies and Wallaroos.
"Probably culture, from all the teams I've ever been involved in or businesses I've led, the most important thing is driving a strong high-performing culture, and so I'll be focusing on that," Waugh said when asked what aspects he would look to address first up
"If we can drive a strong high-performance culture then that will infect and infiltrate those around us. So I'm really focused on the culture, and connecting with our member unions and into the community.
"I think we've seen a really big gap evolve and get widened between the professional game and the amateur game over the last decade or so; how do we bring that back, how do we ensure that we're all working together to beat other teams in the world rather than compete against each other. I think that's pretty important."
Unlike Castle, Marinos, Bill Pulver and even John O'Neill, if there's one thing Waugh won't have to spend time investigating it's the Wallabies and how they can be the best team possible as quickly as possible. For that, he has 79 Tests worth of first-hand experience.
"It's [the World Cup] coming on us really quickly, we need to get our best players available for selection, which is important in terms of some injured players," Waugh said. "If you go through the history of teams who've won World Cups, it's been teams with the world's best 9 and 10, and so I know Eddie and his coaching staff are focusing on who's going to be the combination 9 and 10.
"And then one of the great things that Dave Rennie brought was blooding a lot of players, I think we used 52 players across the system last year, so a lot of people have had exposure to the international landscape and so I think we're pretty well positioned for that.
"Again, it's still very much the honeymoon period for the team and Eddie because we play our first Test on the 8th of July in Pretoria and if you said to me where's the toughest place to play, I'd probably say Pretoria. So it's a good opportunity for the guys to perform, but it's not without challenges."
On potential changes to the Giteau Law, which Jones himself last week flagged were highly likely, Waugh added: "I think around the eligibility, it's one that's always a topic of conversation. It's really important to get the balance right, of keeping the integrity of the local competition and Super Rugby Pacific, as well as getting access to world-class players, so we're just working through that at the moment.
"We know it's three [players] at the moment with some restrictions around it; are there some exemptions because of positions or the delta between what's available onshore and what may be available offshore, we're working through that at the moment."
Asked about any further pursuit of NRL players following the reportedly record deal for rising Roosters star Joseph Suaali'i, Waugh quipped he'd "like to pay less".
But he otherwise appears to be aligned with McLennan's front-foot approach, albeit with the belief that rugby and it's 13-player counterpart can - and should -- co-exist, just as they have done since 1908, as much so that kids can have the opportunity to play as much sport as possible.
Meanwhile, there are relationships with New Zealand Rugby - one which McLennan has taken on a roller coaster ride in recent times - and World Rugby that need fostering, so too a looming private equity deal for which Waugh's banking background should be a huge asset.
But with any appointment there are going to be objections, or at least scepticism, that perhaps there was a better candidate, or, in this case, one completely independent of any former politicking or state-based affiliations.
"Hopefully well, I've got a lot of good relationships, I shed a lot of blood on the field against Queensland, but a lot of good strong relationships in the gold jersey with Queenslanders," he replied when asked how he thought his appointment might be received, particularly north of the Tweed River.
"I think you've got to spend time face to face [talking], Zoom's nice, but you've got to be up there with everyone from around the country. So I'm quite excited about it, and there are a lot of great people that are very passionate about the game in Queensland and I look forward to driving the game forward.
"You go back to the history and when the Wallabies have been strong, Queensland has been strong, NSW has been strong. And so it's going to be important to drive that relationship; I think that competitive tension between the two states is really healthy, but you've got to get on the same page, get in front of them, and drive the national interest."
Whatever the case, it's the nature of the role that not every decision Waugh makes, or is part of, will be universally popular.
Rugby Australia will be hoping they don't end in blood and bruises, as brutally entertaining as those battles with David Croft were.