Rugby: Another Rocky who never shirks going the distance

The intimidating Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom. Photo / Mark Mitchell

You'd think that if any team could put on a show and provide a real twist to the plot, it'd be one led by a bloke named Rocky.

So can Rocky Elsom's Wallabies deliver at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium tonight in the first Bledisloe Cup test of the year?

Being led by Rocky will most certainly help. The only missing ingredient in the Australian rugby captain's likeness to Rocky Mk II is the voice.

Rocky Elsom has a calm, almost quiet tone that is at complete variance with his intimidating physical make-up. In the green and gold corner, he stands almost 2m tall and weighs in at 106kg.

And when he crosses the chalk, a bruising, fearsome warrior is unleashed. He doesn't so much run into opponents as tear into them. Teeth bared in a subconscious reaction to the extreme physicality of his trade, Rocky Elsom is to Robbie Deans' men a totem, a beacon to follow.

Deans, it is reported, did not take long to choose Elsom, 27, as the new Wallabies captain once it became clear Stirling Mortlock had probably been involved in enough head-on crashes for one lifetime.

Yet Deans recognised his enormous contribution by paying him the ultimate compliment. He picked Mortlock Mk II as the new Australian captain.

Some grow into the job; some make the mistake of believing they must make speeches. Elsom, it is said, doesn't go near that kind of film star drama. His persona is sufficient to inspire; his courage acts as a surge of adrenalin among his mates. His expression brooks no arguments and his 54 test caps demand respect. After Brisbane last week, victory over the South Africans secured, he sported a very passable imitation of Rocky at the end of his latest fight. Bruised and battered, the red weals on his face told of the thunderous collisions, the absence of concern for personal safety throughout the previous 80 minutes.

Yet his inquisitors tend to ignore such valiant efforts. One intimated that maybe he hadn't quite produced enough of his trademark charges that particular night.

Yet Elsom didn't blink. Nor did he desert his customary courtesy. "It's not as if I don't want to do that every game. I am looking for those lines in every match. Sometimes they open up, sometimes they don't. But when they do I want to get through them as quickly as possible.

"It's the same with the style we play. We want to attack all the time but sometimes it works better than others. When it really works well for us we are all doing exactly the same thing."

Elsom's reputation goes before him nowadays. Go to Ireland and it's doubtful whether the Pope would be more popular. Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll, not a player prone to wild over-exaggeration or false praise, regarded Elsom during the season they played together for Leinster as an exceptional performer, perhaps the best he had seen.

At times, it seemed as though Elsom was driving Leinster to the European Cup almost single-handed last year. That was some feat considering Leinster also had O'Driscoll, not to mention half a dozen or more Ireland internationals in their ranks.

The Leinster coach of that time, Australian Michael Cheika, was suitably impressed. "When Rocky Elsom left, we acknowledged we would never be able to replace him in terms of all the things he gave us.

"Some people asked why we couldn't have bought more players of his calibre. But where do you find guys like that. They're not exactly hanging around on street corners in droves."

They're certainly not and that is why they should be celebrated. The quality player is one thing; that person with a charismatic manner to boot is an especially rare species.

And, in Elsom's case, there is even more. He is a most intelligent young man, one who thinks about his life and what is required of him. He writes his own newspaper column, scorning the use of a ghost writer. Good on him.

Rocky always wrote his own scripts.

Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media worldwide