Mitchell, Moore to join Super Rugby 100 Club
Mitchell, Moore to join Super Rugby 100 Club
AKA, playing more than 100 SR matches increases your chance of baldness
By Qantas Wallabies Media Unit
Australian Rugby will welcome its 24th and 25th members of the ‘100 club’ when the round robin qualifying phase of FxPro Super Rugby takes its final bow this weekend.
Qantas Wallabies pair, Brumbies hooker Stephen Moore and NSW Waratahs winger Drew Mitchell will both make their 100th appearances in the competition, during Saturday’s matches against the Blues in Canberra, and Queensland Reds in Brisbane, respectively. They join the Melbourne Rebels trio of Mark Gerrard, Adam Freier and Nic Henderson, who all brought up their centuries earlier in the year.
Thirteen new players will have been inducted into Super Rugby’s ‘100 club’ by the conclusion of this weekend’s matches. The addition of Mitchell and Moore will mean that 61 players have compiled in excess of a century of appearances since Super Rugby kicked off in 1996.
Mitchell and Moore, who are former team-mates at the Queensland Reds, share much in common, with their careers – both in Super Rugby and with the Wallabies – having been closely linked. Both made their debuts while at Queensland, with Moore entering the fray against the Bulls at Pretoria in 2003, while Mitchell was introduced against the Highlanders at Invercargill a year later. The pair were then elevated to the Qantas Wallabies in 2005 – Moore against Samoa at Sydney and Mitchell later in the year against South Africa in Sydney.
Moore ended the June Test window having played 70 Tests, just two behind the former Brumbies hooker Jeremy Paul, whose 72 Test appearances rank him as Australia’s most capped hooker. Injury allowed Mitchell just three Test appearances last year, and denied him a shot at the June Tests, stalling his career tally on 58 Test caps.
Mitchell and Moore became the 33rd and 34th Australians to appear in 50 Tests when they raised the milestone together during the Qantas Wallabies’ famous 41-39 win over South Africa at Bloemfontein in 2010 – a result which snapped a sequence of 12 consecutive defeats and 47 years of Australian hurt from Test matches at high veldt venues in the South African Republic.
Mitchell, who joined the Waratahs in 2010, has spread his competition appearances across three franchises: Reds (35), Western Force (38) and Waratahs (27). Moore has played for the Reds (47 caps) and the Brumbies (52), with this being his fourth season in Canberra.
Australia has provided three of the four most capped players in FxPro Super Rugby – Nathan Sharpe, Stirling Mortlock and George Gregan, with this trio being separated by the second placed Kiwi, All Black hooker Keven Mealamu.
Of the top seven, six have played for Australian franchises at some point of their careers – with the top three being joined by Caleb Ralph, Phil Waugh and Greg Somerville.
Ralph and Somerville both played the bulk of their Super Rugby careers under the tutelage of current Qantas Wallabies coach Robbie Deans at the Crusaders, although the Australian link through Ralph is tenuous – representing just one of the 136 caps he gained during his Super Rugby career. Ralph also represented the Blues and the Chiefs before finishing off with one appearance – and his seventh ‘championship ring’ – as an injury reinforcement at the Reds last year. Somerville returned from a stint in England last term to close his Super rugby career with a season as part of the Melbourne Rebels foundation journey
Players to have appeared for Australian teams who are Super Rugby Centurions 1996-2012
*161 Nathan Sharpe (Queensland Reds/Western Force)
*138 Stirling Mortlock (Brumbies/Melbourne Rebels)
136 George Gregan (Brumbies)
136 Caleb Ralph (Chiefs/Blues/Crusaders – all NZ/Queensland Reds)
132 Phil Waugh (NSW Waratahs)
131 Greg Somerville (Crusaders – NZ/Melbourne Rebels)
128 George Smith (Brumbies)
123 Sean Hardman (Queensland Reds)
121 Al Baxter (NSW Waratahs)
116 Stephen Larkham (Brumbies)
113 Jeremy Paul (Brumbies)
111 Matt Dunning (NSW Waratahs/Western Force)
109 Chris Latham (NSW Waratahs/Queensland Reds)
107 Chris Whitaker (NSW Waratahs)
106 Brendan Cannon (NSW Waratahs/Queensland Reds/Western Force)
*106 Mark Gerrard (NSW Waratahs/Brumbies/Melbourne Rebels)
106 Scott Staniforth (NSW Waratahs/Western Force)
*104 Adam Freier (Brumbies/NSW Waratahs/Melbourne Rebels)
104 Matt Giteau (Brumbies/Western Force)
103 Mark Chisholm (Brumbies)
*103 Nic Henderson (Brumbies/Melbourne Rebels)
100 David Lyons (NSW Waratahs)
100 Bill Young (Brumbies)
This Weekend:
*99 Drew Mitchell (Queensland Reds/Western Force/NSW Waratahs)
*99 Stephen Moore (Queensland Res/Brumbies)
* denotes players still ‘active’ in the competition
Denotes baldness a few there thining not counted too :P
- Statistics compiled with the assistance of New Zealand Rugby Almanack co-editor Geoff Miller
