Rocky Elsom

Rocky Elsom (born 14 February 1983) is an Australian former rugby union player.

He played the positions of flanker and number eight.

He was selected for 75 caps for Australia.

He is the most capped Australian blindside flanker.

He was selected to play number 8 for the Australian Schoolboys in August 2000.

Following Elsom's success on the schoolboy stage, he spent two seasons with the Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league club in Sydney and was a front-row prop in their 2001 premiership-winning Jersey Flegg Cup side.

During that time he lived with fellow Bulldogs players including future test star Johnathan Thurston, Nate Myles, Roy Asotasi and dual-code international, Sonny Bill Williams, whom he would go on to meet on two occasions at test level in rugby union.

They resided in a Bulldogs-owned cottage called the 'Dog House' in Belmore.

Elsom returned to rugby union in 2003, making his debut in Super Rugby against the Auckland Blues for the Waratahs.

He also co-captained the Australian Under 21s at the 2003 under-21 World Cup.

He played for the Wallabies from 2005 until 2011.

Elsom played professionally for New South Wales, Brumbies and Leinster.

Elsom continued to progress in the Australian rugby scene, featuring in 12 of the Waratahs 13 games during the 2005 season, which saw the side make it to the final, only to be defeated by the Crusaders.

Elsom was selected as number six for the opening Wallaby test of 2005 against Samoa.

He scored the opening try of the match and went on to hold his place as Australia's first choice number six despite strong competition.

In 2005, Elsom re-signed with the Waratahs, which saw him stay at the New South Wales franchise until the end of the 2008 Super 14 season.

Elsom is one of Australia's most decorated players, having won Herald Super 14 player of the year in 2007, Wallaby of the Year in 2008, European Player of the Year in 2009 and having been inducted into the European Cup Hall of Fame in 2010.

He also holds the record for most tries by a Wallaby forward and is one of only a handful of Australians to win a Heineken Cup medal twice.

Brian O'Driscoll once lauded Elsom as the best player in the world.

Elsom has had an international career spanning 75 matches along with 64 Super Rugby Caps and 21 caps for Dublin-based province Leinster.

In his career Elsom has won NSW Waratah of the Year 2007, Herald Super 14 Player of the Year, Wallaby of the Year, Leinster Rugby Player of the Year, Magners League Player of the Year and European Player of the Year.

Elsom was also awarded the Waratah Medal for outstanding contribution to NSW Rugby in 2007.

Elsom is one of only a handful of Australian players that have won a European Cup.

Elsom's career has not been without controversy, with a couple of suspensions (one of which was later overturned).

In 2007, Elsom was named captain of the Waratahs for their week 12 clash with the Highlanders in Sydney, his 50th appearance for the Waratahs.

Elsom also received the Matt Burke Cup for the Waratahs in 2007 along with the Herald Award for the best performing Super 14 player of 2007 and the NSW Medal for outstanding contribution to NSW rugby.

He was also named the most valuable flanker in Australia.

In his world cup debut against Japan, he scored a hat-trick of tries and set a world record for the fastest hat-trick by a forward in World Cup history (18.33 minutes).

In late 2007 Elsom played Number Eight in the Barbarians VS.

match, where he scored an unforgettable try early in the second half which helped the Barbarians push past the World Champions South Africa.

Also a drawn-out feud with the ARU over the terms of his contract led to an unusual early release on 'compassionate grounds' to join Leinster in 2008.

This resulted in Elsom being deemed 'unavailable' for the 2008 Wallaby Spring tour despite being named Wallaby of the Year one month earlier.

In 2008 Elsom was awarded the 'Wallaby of the Year' after playing in all but one match of the Wallabies' Tri-nations tests and scoring a crucial try to defeat the All Blacks in Sydney.

Elsom was the 76th Australian test captain, having replaced Stirling Mortlock in 2009 for two years.

Ten days after a 'Man of the Match' performance in Leinster's victory in the 2009 Heineken Cup Final against Leicester Tigers, Elsom negotiated a return to Australia and the test arena, agreeing to terms with the ARU and ACT Brumbies.

Elsom was born in Melbourne and was educated at St. Joseph's Nudgee College in Brisbane where he was captain of the rugby union side; he went on to make the Australian Schoolboys side.

He was a fast, agile forward for a young man of his size.

He was nearly 100 kg when he finished in the Australian Schoolboys side.

In 2010 Elsom was named at blindside flanker in a European dream team by the ERC to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the Heineken Cup.

This came despite him only spending one season with Leinster, such was his impact during the tournament that year.