After missing consecutive finals, the Waratahs have ventured back to the future in pursuit of Super Rugby Pacific success, signing the two experienced playmakers for the 2027 season.
Sure to raise eyebrows, 36-year-old Foley and Phipps, 37, were the halves in the Waratahs' one and only Super Rugby championship-winning team way back in 2014 under Michael Cheika.
But, promising to bring professionalism to the under-achieving franchise, the duo are adamant they remain up to the class required to help restore the Waratahs to their glory days of more than a decade ago.
"I feel better than probably when I left here in some regards," Foley said. My last 12 months my body's felt really good. I haven't had many niggles.Â
"I also understand the game now at a different level and hopefully will be able to teach that or impart that on some young guys.
"You feel that every year you're involved in the game you grow and you've got different attributes that you can bring back.
"The fact that age is a number and how you manage yourself and get yourself through a pre-season and then a season. But the wisdom and the experiences, that's something you can really offer a team."
Phipps bristled when noting how older players were hugely respected in England and Japan while often maligned in Australia.
"We certainly wouldn't be putting ourselves up to it if we thought we'd ever let the Tahs down. We've got too much respect for the club to do that," Phipps said.
"Props and second rowers, they only really get good when they're 30, nines and 10s (at) 35. But it seems like a thing in Australia that once they hit 30, they're over the hill.
"It seems so funny to me where over in the UK they're the valued guys, they're the older heads - they've been there, they've got the experience.
"(Former Waratahs title-winning captain) Dave Dennis left here at 30 because he was pushed out. They said he was too old, but then he went over and captained Exeter for a couple of years. He was phenomenal over there.
"We miss a big chunk of our players by letting them go too early."
Even still, the recruitment of Foley and Phipps, driven by Rugby Australia as the club chases a new coach to replace Dan McKellar, can only be viewed as a short-term fix to the Waratahs' ongoing search for quality playmakers.
The Tahs released 22-year-old flyhalf Jack Bowen, who was presented with few opportunities during a three-season stint, after missing the 2025 and 2026 Super Rugby Pacific finals.
Fellow five-eighth Tane Edmed left at the end of last year, but struggled for game time at the ACT Brumbies this season.
Foley has spent the past five seasons with Kubota Spears in Japan, where he led the club to three finals and a first-ever League One championship in 2023.
After also departing the Waratahs at the end of 2019, Phipps plied his trade with London Irish in the Premiership before joining Foley in Japan, playing four seasons with Green Rockets Tokatsu.
The veterans both made their Super Rugby debuts in 2011 and boast a combined 253 appearances for NSW and 147 Tests for Australia.
Their paths have regularly converged throughout their careers from playing Shute Shield for Sydney University to winning a silver medal as Australian sevens teammates at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
And now their return to Daceyville.
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