Stirling Mortlock

Australia’s captain for the last three seasons, STIRLING MORTLOCK shows no sign of slowing up, adding a further 13 Test caps to his tally in 2008. Only three players – George Gregan (59), John Eales (55) and Nick Farr Jones (36) have led Australia on more occasions in Tests than Mortlock (25), who surpassed fellow centre Andrew Slack (19) when he captained Australia for the 20th time during September’s Tri-Nations decider against New Zealand. Mortlock is also Australia’s third highest point-scorer in Tests, with 484; while just six Wallabies have more than his 28 Test tries. In 2008, five of his 13 caps were won starting at inside centre.

1996   Represented the Australian Under 19s a year after graduating from The Kings School.

1997   Toured Argentina with the Wallabies and also represented the Australian Under 21s and Australian Barbarians teams.

1998-1999   Again toured with the Australian Under 21s before making his Super 12 debut for the Brumbies, playing wing, fullback and outside centre in his rookie season.

2000   Made his Test debut against Argentina in Brisbane and then became the fastest Australian to reach 50 and 100 Test points.  He scored the most points and highest number of penalties [16] by any Australian in his first five Tests and created history by becoming the first Australian to score 20 points or more in four consecutive Tests. He then capped off a memorable year by kicking a last-second penalty goal from the sideline against South Africa in Durban to clinch Australia's first Tri Nations title.

2001   Missed the entire Test season after injuring his shoulder in the Brumbies semi final win over the Reds.

2003   Secured the Australian number 13 jersey at the 2003 Rugby World Cup where his 80 metre intercept try against the All Blacks in the semi final is stamped in tournament folklore.

2004   Missed a second Super 12 Championship with the Brumbies through injury, having taken over the captaincy from George Gregan, before scoring five tries from 10 Test appearances for the Wallabies.

2005   Started the Test season at outside centre before a hamstring and then calf injury saw him miss the last two Tri Nations matches and the Spring Tour.

2006   Became the 73rd player to Captain the Wallabies in the Test against England in Melbourne before earning the honour three more times on the Spring Tour. He moved his career Test points tally past 350, celebrating his 50th Test alongside Nathan Sharpe against South Africa in Johannesburg.

2007   Concussions and a broken hand limited him to just six appearances for the Brumbies in the Super 14. Captained the Wallabies in eight Test matches, adding 101 points to his point scoring tally, placing him as third highest Australian point scorer. 

2008   Was again forced to make a delayed start to the Investec Super 14 due to injury, but found time in the six matches he did play to become just the sixth Brumby to surpass a century of career appearances while also moving beyond Tony Brown as the competition’s fourth highest point-scorer with 913. Retained as captain by new Qantas Wallabies coach Robbie Deans, Mortlock appeared in eight of the nine domestic Tests, leading the side to five wins, which included Australia’s first win on South African soil in eight years. He then led the way in all five Spring Tour Tests, which included the first back-to-back away Test wins for Australia over England and France for a decade.