NSW Waratahs coach Dan McKellar is facing a significant squad rebuild beyond this season, with Rob Leota the latest Wallaby headed for the exit door and potentially more set to follow.
Leota will join French Top 14 club Bayonne on a two-year deal, the club announced on Tuesday, despite the former Melbourne Rebels captain having expressed a desire to stay on in Sydney ahead of this year's Super Rugby Pacific season.
"Being here for a couple of months now, I wouldn't mind if I was still in Sydney [in 2027]" Leota told ESPN. "A lot of my family are here, that was a big decision in why I came here, out of all the other states, because I think one of my big values is family. I know I'm going to get a sense of comfort knowing that I've got family here."
However, it's understood the lack of a Rugby Australia top-up largely forced Leota's hand, the versatile forward left to weigh up an enticing offer from Bayonne, who currently sit fourth in the Top 14, against a standalone Super Rugby deal with the Waratahs.
Leota has not been helped by the ongoing threat of injury, which has limited him to only a handful of Tests in the past three years and prevented him from playing any international rugby at all during the 2024 season.
He was however a member of Eddie Jones' Wallabies squad at Rugby World Cup 2023, and at his best is a powerful ball-carrier who is often roaming in the wider channels, as he has done with the Waratahs this season.
Leota's departure comes on the back of another key back-row loss in Sydney, with the in-form Langi Gleeson having already confirmed he would join another French club, Montpellier, on a two-year deal.
Gleeson was one of the few Waratahs players to emerge from the team's tough defeat in Fiji at the weekend with his reputation intact, enhanced even, while Leota was rested under Rugby Australia protocols.
The loss of the Wallabies duo leaves McKellar with significant recruitment work to do in his back-row over the offseason, with only Charlie Gamble contracted beyond 2025. Englishmen Jamie Adamson is on a one-year deal, so too Leafi Talataina, with both men only in their first season of Super Rugby.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that Taniela Tupou will also head to France with the prop having been offered a big-money deal by Pau. Tupou's current deal with Rugby Australia expires at the end of the year and he will not be offered a similar pay packet to the one he is on, which is second only to star code-hopper Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, with the prop's form having dipped dramatically in the past few years.
At one stage rated amone the world's best tightheads, Tupou has not been able to hit the same heights he did under Dave Rennie having suffered serious Achilles and hamstring injuries in back-to-back seasons, the latter ending his 2023 World Cup campaign after just one game.
If Tupou does indeed depart, McKellar will be facing a mighty rebuild of the Waratahs pack, particularly given the ongoing injury troubles of hooker Dave Porecki. Third-string rake Julian Heaven is another player departing Sydney at the end of the Super season.
Meanwhile, skipper Jake Gordon is also weighing up a deal to head offshore, with the prolonged decision surrounding Joe Schmidt's Wallabies replacement - understood to be Les Kiss - thought to be one of the reasons behind Gordon's delayed decision.
Gordon has been a wonderful servant for the Waratahs having first debuted under Daryl Gibson, before graduating to captain and leading the team through the tough COVID seasons, when Rob Penney was also sacked as coach.
But the Sydneysider was finally able to entrench himself as the Wallabies' first-choice No. 9 under Schmidt last season, a position however that would likely be less certain if Kiss is indeed promoted to the top job in Australian rugby.
While Teddy Wilson has looked right at home in Super Rugby while Gordon has been sidelined by a knee injury, and is the skipper's natural long-term replacement, the loss of even more Test experience would be a devastating blow for McKellar and the Waratahs.
The Waratahs were among the major beneficiaries of the Melbourne Rebels' demise but there was always a risk that their good fortune would be short-lived. As their 2025 Super Rugby season hangs in the balance, that situation already appears to be playing out in Sydney.