The 30-year-old took a few months off, had a light training load when he returned to the Waratahs late in the year, and resumed full contact work only in January. With the long-term impacts of concussion an increasingly topical issue, Gordon said he suffered from anxiety through his slow recovery.

“I was obviously a little bit anxious and I guess the unknown was scaring me a little bit, of when I was going to come good,” he said.

“I stopped reading stuff on it because I was like, ‘Oh is that me?’ I can be neurotic at times sometimes thinking, ‘Is that normal? Is that not normal?’ But I’m back to full health now and really excited for the weekend.”

Gordon is entering his eighth season with the Waratahs, and his fourth as captain of the side. Though he extended with Rugby Australia and NSW Rugby for two more seasons last year, Gordon said the clock was ticking in terms of securing some silverware.

Last season, the confident Waratahs were aiming to improve on a sixth-placed finish in 2022 and publicly targeted a finish in the top four. But they ended up in the same spot, and went out in the quarter-finals again.

“It was a funny year last year. We probably brought it on ourselves a little bit, around our expectation as a team. Super Rugby is a pretty short competition. You don’t have a heap of time to get into it,” Gordon said.

“The expectation we put on ourselves at the start of the year coming out [with a target] openly, and I was guilty of it too, talking up an ambition to be in the top four … I’d probably think it had a negative effect.

“We’ve changed a little bit this pre-season and how we’ve trained. Looking at rugby nowadays and its intervals of 30 seconds, and it’s heading towards a little bit more of a power game. I think we’ve got a team that really suits that.”

Meanwhile, Brumbies boss Phil Thomson has played down suggestions the franchise could follow the Melbourne Rebels and enter voluntary administration.

The Rebels face an uncertain future after being placed in VA, due to mountains of debt – reportedly as high as $20 million – owed to the Tax Office, Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust and a range of creditors.

The Brumbies are also under financial stress but say they are solvent and that their situation is directly linked to a $1.7 million per year funding shortfall from Rugby Australia. Informed sources, who requested anonymity so they could speak freely, say the Brumbies’ debt is about $1 million and being paid down.

“We won’t be going into voluntary administration. We don’t have the level of debt to require that course of action,” Thomson said on Tuesday.

The Brumbies last year blasted Rugby Australia for what they perceived to be a hostile takeover, and said they were prepared to fight in court.

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“We have ongoing discussions with Rugby Australia in relation to our financial position and support around that, and the level of funding,” Thomson said.

“And we are on the record as being more than happy to work with Rugby Australia to work on an aligned high-performance program and any commercial alignment that benefits rugby as a whole, to increase revenue. We have gone to Rugby Australia with a solution to that problem and are waiting for Rugby Australia to respond to that.”

All three episodes of the brand new Stan Original Documentary Series The Wallabies - Inside Rugby World Cup 2023 premiere February 22, only on Stan.

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