Wallabies hooker Adam Freier has explained why he chose to sign his two-year contract extension with the ARU and New South Wales.

Freier's contract ended on December 31st, but the 28-year-old decided against following teammates Rocky Elsom and Dan Vickerman overseas, citing his desire to help the Waratahs achieve a first ever Super Rugby title. The Sydney-based franchise made the 2008 final but lost out in Christchurch to the Crusaders.

"NSW have never won a Super championship at all and I want to be part of that team that wins it for the first time," Freier told the Sun-Herald. "I'm very passionate about winning a title there. You set yourselves goals at the start of your career: What do you want to do? How many games do you want to play? What do you want to achieve? and my goal was to play in the Super 14 and win a Super 14 title and I'm confident that's going to happen in the next two years.

"And that's one of the factors why I stayed with NSW."

Freier played in all 12 of Australia's internationals last year and scored two tries at the World Cup currently sits behind Queensland's Stephen Moore and NSW teammate Tatafu Polota-Nau in the national side's pecking order. He had the chance of moving to another Australian franchise as well as overseas.

But the lure of the light blue jersey proved too much.

"I've played at the Brumbies before and then moved to the Waratahs and I've always had a funny feeling that, if you've played at three clubs, it doesn't show you as much of a person if you're club-hopping like that," he said. "My loyalty is to NSW. I was given a chance there by [former coach] Ewen [McKenzie] a few years ago and I'm very close to that club."

However the 21-test Freier admitted that he came "pretty close" to leaving the country. Other major influences in his decision to stay were the new eras beginning with both country and state under Robbie Deans and Chris Hickey respectively.

"I have to admit my decision definitely changed after seeing how the Wallabies operate now with Robbie," Freier said. "He's definitely brought a different way of thinking and I thought that was a very telling factor in my decision.

"I'm really confident in the way rugby is moving forward in our country, not just from an Australian point of view, but also at the Waratahs. There's changes there as well."