But as the Wallabies prepare for a World Cup final, the man who gave him a career lifeline says Fardy's heart made him worth the biggest recruitment punt in Australian rugby.

Forget the Australian Rugby Union's $300,000 bet on the Wallabies to win the World Cup. The risk "Lord" Laurie Fisher took on an untested 27-year-old Fardy as part of a plan to rebuild the ACT Brumbies was far more significant.

Fardy took a rookie contract worth $40,000 a season. His determination turned that tiny chance into what was an impossible World Cup dream. "It was an absolute punt, you just didn't know what you were going to get," Fisher said.

"But he had chased opportunity, we knew he could play footy, but didn't know what he could deliver. It was unbelievable what he did. From then on, you wouldn't be without him.

"Sometimes as a coach you look for the bloke who can run the fastest or bench-press the most. But you've got to open your mind. What Fards has is a rugby brain, the competitive instinct and the hunger to succeed. He never stops."

Fardy has been the unsung hero of the Wallabies revival. He is a no-frills player who more often than not ends up with a blood-soaked face and more bumps and bruises than the rest of the team combined. His performances to help get the Wallabies into the World Cup final against New Zealand on Saturday (Sunday morning AEDT) have been nothing short of outstanding.

It is a remarkable twist for a man who had almost conceded he would never get a shot at Super Rugby. Fardy was overlooked by the Waratahs before being drafted into the Western Force academy, but even then it was deemed he did not possess the physical attributes needed to be a professional. That is when Fardy went to Japan to play for the Kamaishi Seawaves, and rugby was put on the backburner when a tsunami ripped through the town and killed 1300 people in 2011.

The easy option would have been to return to Australia. But after a career of doing it the hard way, Fardy stayed and helped anyone who needed it. He lost seven kilograms as food was rationed and the village was without power. But it is that sort of attitude that has made him a vital cog in Australia's back row alongside superstars David Pocock and Michael Hooper and landed him a minimal deal in Canberra.

A year later he made his Wallabies debut and while there is conjecture about having Pocock and Hooper in the same team, Fardy was the back-row man who was never in doubt. "The first time I came across him, he was in third grade at the Warringah Rats. Then we ended up in first grade together," said former housemate Pat McCabe. "I would always look up to him and loved playing with him. But when you're in a Super Rugby academy it's about physical testing and how you look. But look at him now. He's got one of the worst bodies I've ever seen and he's in a World Cup final."

Fardy revealed in the first week of the World Cup that McCabe was adding extra motivation to his campaign. Just a little more than 12 months ago an emotional McCabe was forced into premature retirement when he broke his neck in a Test against the All Blacks.

It was the third time McCabe had broken his neck and he quit the sport for his health. What McCabe didn't know was that it rattled Fardy. McCabe was a Wallabies warrior and the image of the bloodied inside centre making tackle after tackle with a busted shoulder against South Africa in a World Cup quarter-final four years ago will stick with Fardy in the tough moments against New Zealand.

"I didn't see he was rattled, but he told me about it. I'd played with him since I was 17 and he's a groomsman at my wedding coming up," McCabe said. "I am living through him a little bit, I'm so immensely proud of what he's achieved. Good things happen to good people and he certainly fits that. Everyone sees him with blood pouring from his head and a big beard. But what they don't see is what he does for the team off the field.

"The way he leads. He can hold a team together.

"Maybe he didn't have the striking attributes that made him jump off the page to recruiters. But this is where he belongs. Fards is the man you want beside you."

And what makes him so good? Fisher says an unrelenting attitude and willingness to do whatever it takes, borne out of his unconventional road to the final. "He's taken to Test rugby like a duck to water. Every game you hear that he's the unsung hero, but I've never seen him have a bad game. He doesn't have highs or lows, he just turns up and does his job. He's just unbelievably consistent. He'd be one of the first players picked in any team he plays in, I guarantee you."