Ahead of tomorrow’s second Test between the Wallabies and England at Melbourne’s AAMI Park, it’s worth noting that it is exactly ten years to the day since Australia emphatically defeated the old enemy 43-18 at Etihad Stadium.
It was the second and final test of the 2006 series, with the Wallabies scoring a whopping 77 points across both games to England’s 21, but as the two sides prepare to battle this time around it’s Australia under pressure having lost the opening encounter in Brisbane last weekend.
Stephen Larkham was there then, the diminutive flyhalf scoring a try in front of 65,000 screaming spectators, and he’ll be there again this weekend as the Wallabies’ Attack Coach (at a venue which wasn’t even built yet last time around!). Watching Bernard Foley controlling the tempo last weekend when the Wallabies were in possession it was clear that Larkham’s influence on games remains just as strong since he changed from boots to leather lace-ups, where he also leads the Brumbies as their Head Coach.
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It got us thinking, though; what are the other 24 players who featured in that two-match series doing now? With the help of LinkedIn, some phone calls and emails and a few we didn’t even have to look up, we present (to the day) the Wallabies of the 2006 Cook Cup series, Ten Years On!
Larkham isn’t the only member of the Wallabies side currently in camp in Melbourne; tighthead prop Greg Holmes and Wycliff Palu are still, quite remarkably, in the Australian squad with Holmes set to come off the bench tomorrow night and Palu narrowly missing selection in the match day squad after initially being named in the extended squad.
Both players have remained loyal to Australian Rugby for the past decade, with Wallaby No. 812 Palu making well over a century of appearances for the Waratahs while Holmes has made close to 150 for the Reds! Holmes will move to the UK at the end of the year, having signed to play for the Exeter Chiefs alongside fellow Wallaby Lachie Turner.
Lock Mark Chisholm, Wallaby Number 792, hailed from Gladstone in Central Queensland but made himself a household name during nearly a decade at the Brumbies as he made over 100 appearances, also representing Australia 58 times. At the end of 2011, ‘Chis’ moved to France where he played with Bayonne before a move to Irish powerhouse Munster in 2015, his side finishing 6th in the 2015-2016 Pro12.
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Fellow lock Daniel Vickerman made a triumphant playing return at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, after moving to the UK to study at the famed University of Cambridge (where he also played in their annual Varsity match against Oxford). Upon retirement, Vickerman had amassed 63 Wallabies caps, and he is now the Property Investment Manager for Heathley Ltd, as well as continuing to serve the game as a member of the National Player Development Program (PDP) committee, helping with transitioning into life after Rugby for current professionals.
Sam Cordingley made a smooth transition into life after playing Rugby, staying in the game he loves with non-playing roles at first the Melbourne Rebels and now the Queensland Reds. Cordingley made over 50 Super Rugby appearances with the Rebels and Reds and also played in Wales and France. His current role at the Reds is Head of List Management & Pathways, and he has played a key role in recruiting 2006 Wallaby teammate George Smith to the Reds for the next two Super Rugby seasons.
Smith continues to motor along, excelling at English Club Wasps this year where he won the Rugby Players’ Association (English version of RUPA) Player of the Season. He’ll continue to play for Suntory Sungoliath in Japan as well as the Reds, however he has confirmed this week that he has no intention of adding to his 111 Wallaby Caps.
A number of players from that 2006 side have found themselves working in the media, none more so than current Head of Digital & Wallabies Media Adam Freier, who tours with the national team and advises Michael Cheika on all things communications-related, as well as overseeing Rugby.com.au.
George Gregan’s success in the hospitality world continues, with his GG Espresso café chain numbering more than a dozen around Sydney, while the 139-capped Wallaby also shares the naming rights of a grandstand in Canberra with former Wallaby & Brumbies teammate Larkham. Gregan is a key member of Fox Sports’ game day Rugby coverage, as well as working alongside former All Blacks star Andrew Mehrtens on The Other Rugby Show.
While watching Fox Sports News, you could very easily come across any of expert pundit trio Stirling Mortlock AM, Jeremy Paul or Phil Waugh, each juggling other work commitments to regular jump in studio and dissect the week’s Rugby action, at either a provincial or international level.
Away from the news desk, you’ll also find Mortlock at National Australia Bank, where he is a Wealth Director, while Waugh is the Head of Asset Finance at Commonwealth Bank. Paul remains involved in Rugby as Head Coach of Penrith in Sydney’s Shute Shield competition.
Nathan Sharpe, who actually made his Wallaby debut in Melbourne way back in 2002, hung up the boots in 2012 after amassing a staggering 112 Wallaby caps and 162 Super Rugby appearances for the Reds and Western Force. Sharpe is a commentator along with former Wallaby Matt Burke for Network Ten’s free-to-air international Rugby coverage, while he also owns an F45 gym and is a Director of recruitment group SES Labour Solutions; a busy man!
Cameron Shepherd is yet another player from that series who is working in the media, alongside Andrew Swain and Benn Robinson as he fronts 7Two’s coverage of Sydney’s Shute Shield, while he also works as a Senior Negotiator for CBRE, specialising in Industrial and Office Park transactions in the North Sydney and greater North Shore market.
Overseas, and Rocky Elsom heads a large Australian contingent at French ProD2 side Narbonne, where he is part of a consortium who own the Club. Australians playing for the Club currently include Tom Boidin, Huia Edmonds, Jono Jenkins and Brett Sheehan, with Chris Whittaker on the Club’s coaching staff, meaning there’s plenty of familiar twang around for former Australian Captain Elsom, who also played professionally in Ireland and Japan as well as at glamour French Club Toulon.
Also in France, scrumhalf Josh Valentine continues to excel for Beziers, after previously spending two seasons with Narbonne. Valentine, whose Instagram account tells us is currently enjoying his off-season break by catching some of the world’s biggest live sporting events in the US, made 88 Super Rugby appearances across four Clubs before moving overseas.
Rodney Blake is still affectionately known as ‘Rodzilla’, and the monster prop is now living happily in Bowen, Far North Queensland, where he is a production operator at the Abbott Point Coal Port. Blake, who made 7 appearances for Australia and played professionally for the Rebels, Reds and Bayonne in France, and his wife Leilani have three children; Trinity (5), Pouvalu (3) and Jireh, born earlier this year.
After an injury-enforced retirement in 2009, Clyde Rathbone had a second coming as a professional Rugby player, re-joining the Brumbies in 2013 before retiring at the end of the 2014 Super Rugby season with nearly 70 Super Rugby caps to his name. He is now the Co-Founder and CEO of Karma.wiki, an online community sharing open letters as a way to learn about people, and his involvement in Rugby is limited to writing occasional blogs for Rugby.com.au and being “a Brumbies and Wallabies fan who has always believed Stephen Moore to be an excitement machine”.
Over to Japan now, where the evergreen Mark Gerrard and Daniel Heenan continue to excel for Toyota Shokki Shuttles and Panasonic Wild Knights respectively. Gerrard scored three tries in that 2006 Test series and went on to make 23 appearances for Australia, as well as accumulate over 100 Super Rugby appearances for the Waratahs, Brumbies and Rebels. Heenan left Australia in 2007, with the 34 year old having played successfully in Japan for close on a decade now!
Prop Al Baxter remains in Sydney after hanging up the boots in 2011 following 69 Wallabies caps and 120 Super Rugby appearances for the Waratahs, a Club whom he remains on the Board of Directors. He is the Associate Principal of Populous, a global architecture and design practice specialising in sports and events, while Baxter is also a Trustee of Sydney Living Museums.
Coaching is an avenue many former players go down, and Chris Latham and Tai McIsaac are no exception. Latham is currently the backs coach of Japanese side NTT Docomo, as well as owning the Happy Wanderer Village caravan park in Hervey Bay (sounds like a horrible place to live!) McIsaac has stayed close to the beach as well, with the former Wallaby hooker coaching Perth Spirit in the 2015 Buildcorp NRC after previously serving as Head Coach of Honda Heat and Toyota Shokki Shuttles in Japan.
Mat Rogers and Lote Tuqiri both moved to Rugby after successful representative NRL careers, and both finished back in the 13-man game with the Titans and Rabbitohs respectively. This dynamic duo combined to score over 300 points for the Wallabies, with both representing the Waratahs before Tuqiri also spent time in the UK with both Leicester (England) and Leinster (Ireland).
These days both live in Queensland, where Tuqiri is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Hoozu, an influencer marketing agency which works as a kind of casting agency for social media and helps people find the right influencers for their brand. Rogers is just down the road on the Gold Coast, where is the Co-Founder of charity 4asdkids along with his wife Chloe, and if you look at his Twitter account you’ll also see plenty of multisport and cycling going on!
So there you have it, the 2006 Wallabies side a decade later! For what it’s worth, the try scorers that night in Melbourne exactly ten years ago were Chisholm, Gerrard (2), Larkham, Smith and Tuqiri, with Mortlock adding 13 points from the tee to go with the 19 he nailed in the first test (he outscored England for the series by 11 points!)
Since that 2006 series was completed ten years ago today, Australia and England have met a further eleven times, Australia winning just three. If the English win tomorrow night then they’ll overtake Australia and move into second place on the World Rugby official rankings chart, but despite the loss of injured forwards David Pocock and Rob Simmons, we’ve got faith in our men to get the job done and take the series to a decider at Allianz Stadium next Saturday, June 25th.
Good luck, gentlemen – we’re all behind you!
List of Wallabies who played in 2006 Cook Cup series vs. England:
- Wallaby #717, George Gregan
- Wallaby #728, Stephen Larkham
- Wallaby #744, Jeremy Paul
- Wallaby #749, Chris Latham
- Wallaby #759, Stirling Mortlock AM
- Wallaby #760, Sam Cordingley
- Wallaby #764, George Smith
- Wallaby #765, Phil Waugh
- Wallaby #774, Nathan Sharpe
- Wallaby #775, Mat Rogers
- Wallaby #777, Daniel Vickerman
- Wallaby #779, Adam Freier
- Wallaby #783, Lote Tuqiri
- Wallaby #784, Daniel Heenan
- Wallaby #785, Al Baxter
- Wallaby #788, Clyde Rathbone
- Wallaby #792, Mark Chisholm
- Wallaby #794, Rocky Elsom
- Wallaby #797, Mark Gerrard
- Wallaby #804, Greg Holmes
- Wallaby #808, Rodney Blake
- Wallaby #809, Tai McIsaac
- Wallaby #810, Cameron Shepherd
- Wallaby #811, Josh Valentine
- Wallaby #812, Wycliff Palu
