Bernard Foley proved a big hit at the HSBC Festival of Rugby in Sydney © HSBC Sport

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The Pentagon may have disbanded, the Bondi chapter anyway, but the long-standing halves partnership between Wallabies Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley is set for its biggest test yet. Well almost, recovering from the break-up of their infamous Bondi pad will take some time.

Foley and Phipps, along with Waratahs team-mates Michael Hodge and Jono Lance, and friend Josh Coops shared a house together for the last two years, having plenty of fun along the way.

"It was probably a good thing, you know, I think we had our time, we had our fun," Foley told ESPN of The Pentagon at HSBC's Festival of Rugby in Sydney this week. "But no, seriously, it was a really enjoyable couple of years. I'm sure a couple of the guys prospered under my supervision, and my ability to keep them on the straight and narrow."

While Phipps claimed to have shown Foley "a thing or two", the half-back agreed the Bondi set-up had been profitable and all the guys were suffering withdrawal symptoms.

"We've all got a bit of homesickness I think; we've got a little Whatsapp group going we all keep in touch with and the boys are a little bit depressed I think," Phipps told ESPN. "So we've got to move on quickly and the best thing is the dream isn't dead yet; I think me, Hodgy and Bernie are going to live together again next year and John and Josh are going their separate ways. But it was a good couple of years and we've got some great memories out of it."

While their off-field efforts seem to have been the big winner from The Pentagon, Foley and Phipps' on-field combination could soon carry the hopes of a nation. The Waratahs and Wallabies halves have been playing together since their early days at Sydney University Colts, where the seeds of what The Pentagon were first sown.

"I first met Bernie the fourth day of 'O' Week; I'd just moved into College and we were all sort of having a good time," Phipps said. "So we turned up to a trial on the Saturday and we'd had a fairly good night the night before; so I turned up and Bernie was this new Colt and I was this second year Colt and he was as keen as mustard to make a good impression; he told me he'd been eating his pasta the night before; he'd been training hard before the first trial and he saw us just rock up, and that was the first time I got to play 9 and 10 with Bernie and it was great.

"It was a couple of years of Colts together, undefeated, at Sydney University and I loved every minute. We had a really good team, we had Paddy Ryan, Sam Carter, Tom Coolican - who plays for the Eagles now - Peter Betham had a little run with us; so we were quite lucky that we had such a good team."

Then came a stint with the Australian Sevens program, including a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, before Phipps headed off down to Melbourne for a crack at Super Rugby and Foley forced his way in the Waratahs' squad.

Three years passed before Phipps was offered the chance to return to Sydney; the opportunity to reform his combination with "Nardy" proved too good to resist.

Nick Phipps and the Wallabies took some time off to help with an HSBC clinic this week © HSBC Sport

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"After we'd played a couple of years of Sevens together, with the Commonwealth Games where we won silver, that's when I moved down to Melbourne for three years and he started his run at the Tahs," Phipps said. "And then, three years later when the opportunity to come back and play at NSW, my home state, and with Nardy; it was a bit of a no-brainer. So we've been lucky to be playing a fair bit together the last few years and hopefully we can keep building that combination at the Tahs and at Test level."

Phipps and Foley were both last week announced in the Wallabies 31-man Rugby World Cup squad which departs for the United States on Saturday. A two-week camp at famed American College, Notre Dame, will afford Michael Cheika's squad the opportunity to escape the growing hype at home while the clash with the Eagles on September 5th is the last chance for players to impress Cheika ahead of the World Cup opener with Fiji.

The Waratahs duo are competing against Will Genia (half-back) and Quade Cooper (fly-half) for a spot in the run-on side with Cheika appearing to favour the existing pairings from Super Rugby. Phipps and Foley failed to make the most of their chance in the Bledisloe I win over the All Blacks and will no doubt be hoping Cheika affords them the opportunity to restore their shared "sixth sense" and spearhead the Wallabies in England.

"I think the best thing is that we know what we're going to do but also we're quite hard on each other," Phipps said "We both want each other to improve and we're working on our combination constantly. I think little things about the style of play; it's great to know what he's thinking and what he's going to do in certain situations and I can not only help him, but also put him in the best position to make it happen."

Foley said friendship away from rugby had helped foster their successful partnership out on the paddock.

"Well off-field we've got pretty tight," he said. "But on-field, I think it's a bit of a sixth sense, a bit of an instinct that we know where, I suppose, each other are. Every time I step on the field I know what Nick is going to bring; he's always 100% committed to the cause and he'll never die trying. His effort levels will always be up there and that's something that you can really count on, and that's a real attribute to his game."

For the next two weeks though, the focus will be fine-tuning the Wallabies' game plan in the States.

"I think something that's really exciting - it's a place that I've never been to and it's amazing that we can take rugby to Chicago to play a team like the Eagles," Foley said. "It's a great challenge for us, and it's also so good for the squad to get away and spend two really quality weeks together, play a great warm-up game and just sort of gel and put that preparation into a next level."

Just a few hundred miles from the home of the real Pentagon, it may just help with that 'homesickness', too.

HSBC is proud to partner the Wallabies, and shares their ambition to strive for success as they take on the rest of the world in 2015. For more information on HSBC's partnerships visit @HSBC_Sport