Back in 2004, a skinny 15-year old from Dural turned up at St Aloysius College in Sydney, looking to make a name for himself both on and off the rugby field.

The fair skinned flyhalf gave plenty away in size, but quickly caught the attention of the school’s senior coaches with his skill, speed and courage.

11 years on, it’s those same qualities that Bernard Foley will look to as he guides Australia in the biggest match of his career on Sunday monring and perhaps the biggest game in World Cup history.

“He was one of the smaller guys at school, but you wouldn’t have known it after seeing him play,” former coach Frank Clark told Rugby News.

“That’s probably one of the first things I noticed about Bernard. He’d be defending at No.10 off a line out and he’d get these huge forwards running straight at him and he just snapped them in half.

“It was like he didn’t realise how much smaller he was than these other guys. He just had perfect technique and would take guys around the ankles every time.”

Clark described Foley as a very “friendly and likable character,” however his casual nature changed quickly when his competitive instincts took over on the rugby field.

“Bernard is very down to earth and he’s got a great sense of humour, but when he crosses the line, something suddenly changes in him,” Clark said.

“I think he’s just a winner, but he wants to win in the right way. He wants to do the best he can and he wants those around him to do the same and that’s been the case in almost everything he’s done for quite some time.”

Despite starring for St Aloysius through his senior years at the school, Foley was overlooked for higher honours on a number of occasions.

“For us, we knew what he could do from early age, but at a schoolboy level selectors overlooked him.

“He got picked to play off the bench for NSW 2’s which I found quite puzzling, but he shook it off pretty quickly and just got on with it.”

Whilst the likes of Kurtley Beale, Quade Cooper, Matt Toomua and James O’Connor picked up Super Rugby contracts after starring for the Australian Schoolboys, Foley looked to make a name for himself in Sydney’s colts competition.

“He got to Sydney Uni and really put his head down and he and was one of the standouts in that group as a young fella straight out of school.”

From that point, things started to fall in Foley’s favour as his years of hard work were rewarded.

In 2009 he joined the Australian Sevens program and won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth games. He made his Super Rugby debut with the Waratahs a year later and by 2013 he’d represented his country.

“It all comes down to his hard working attitude and his kicking is a perfect example of that. He has always loved his goal kicking, but he was never the best,” Clark recalled.

“He’s just applied himself, focussed on his technique and soaked up all the advice given from various people around him and the results of late speak for themselves.”

Foley’s kicks to win the Super Rugby final and the World Cup quarter final are proof that the 26-year old doesn’t mind the big stage, but can he repeat his heroics to hand Australia a third Rugby World Cup?

“Absolutely he can do it again. He’ll look at the kick, think about it, block out the crowd and he’ll knock it straight over the posts,” Clark said.